DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 87 



Mr. C. J. Oviatt, student in agriculture, represented the college in 

 our state oratorical contest and Miss Shirley May Gardner represented 

 the college in the state oratorical contest for women. This is the first 

 time we have been represented in the women's contest. Both of these 

 representatives were members of the senior class. Although neither was 

 so fortunate as to win first place, both of them were in every way a 

 credit to the college. Next year this college will entertain the state 

 oratorical contest, and our intercollegiate debate with Ypsilanti will 

 also be held here. 



During the winter term a course in oration Avriting was inaugurated 

 for all sophomore men. Through the courtesy of the Funk and Wag- 

 nails Company a fSO.OO copy of the Standard Dictionary was offered 

 as a prize to the member of this class who should prepare and deliver an 

 oration adjudged most worthy of such a prize. Forty men volunteered 

 to contest for this prize, from whom by preliminary contests ten men 

 were selected for the final contest, which was held on June 16. At this 

 contest Mr. George Harris Collingwood, an agricultural student, re- 

 ceived the first prize. The second prize, a ten-volume set of the 

 "World's Great Orations," offered by the English Department, was 

 won by ]Mr. W. R. Walker, an engineering student. For the department 

 and for the college I desire in this public Avay to express our apprecia- 

 tion of the courtesy of the Funk and Wagnalls Company for the 

 splendid prize which they enabled us to offer in this contest. 



We hope to make this sophomore oration contest an annual affair 

 with appropriate prizes. We believe that it will foster and develop 

 oration writing in this college in a way which will be of the utmost 

 value to the young men who do the work. 



In the matter of public speaking we feel that our young men are 

 deprived of both incentive and opportunity to an unfortunate degree. 

 Would it not be possible for an arrangement to be made by which 

 students could make brief addresses before Farmers' Institutes, 

 Granges, Farmers' Clubs, etc., making known to the agricultural inter 

 ests matters of moment in the development of the science of agriculture, 

 as well as matters of practical farm value along the line of engineering 

 science? It seems to n!e that some work of this kind would be valuable 

 both in giving the young man opportunity and training and also in 

 making known to the world something of the real work of our college. 

 Through the achievements of our students we are known to the world 

 almost exclusively by our athletic teams. I would not for a moment 

 decrease this avenue of interest, but I believe some such additional 

 avenue as I suggest would be of no little value. 



In general I believe that the work of the department rturing the year 

 has become more prpctical. For the benefit of students who do not 

 spell well, during both the winter and spring terms, a daily class for 

 fifteen minutes was held at an hour available to every student. Special 

 emphasis has been criven in the sub-freshmen and freshmen years to the 

 most practical kind of letter writing. In various other ways we 

 are endeavoring to make the department give the kind of training 

 which will make our graduates able to command respect because of 

 their power of oral and written expression. Matters of this kind are 

 often taken for granted in college work in English, and are conse 



