DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 179 



partment for but one year. Mr. Schneider fills the place held last year 

 by Mr. C. A. Fleming, who resigned to accept a scholarship in the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan; Mr. Hasselman succeeds Mr. Stepanek, who ac- 

 cepted a very attractive offer from the high school of St. Louis, Mis- 

 souri; Mr. Hughes takes the place held by Miss Dora von Walthausen, 

 who was on leave of absence last year, and whose place was filled tem- 

 porarily by Miss Mary F. Howes. Miss von Walthausen having resigned 

 last summer to become the wife of Mr. E. P. Hibbard, Research Assist- 

 ant in Plant Physiology, Mr. Hughes was selected to fill her place per- 

 manently. 



I am sorry to announce the resignation of Assistant Professor Milton 

 Simpson and Mr. F. L. Schneider. Advised by his physician that Mrs. 

 Simpson should not remain permanently in as damp a climate as that of 

 Michigan, Mr. Simpson accepted an attractive offer of an associate pro- 

 fessorship in Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington. During his 

 five years here Mr. Simpson has made a name as one of the able men of 

 the institution; the loss of so strong a man will be severely felt by the 

 Department of English. Mr. Schneider resigned to accept an instructor- 

 ship in the University of Michigan. As Mr. Schneider, during his year 

 of service here, has proved himself to be a valuable instructor, and I 

 sincerely regret that we were unable to keep him. 



As I have in previous reports called attention rather specifically to sev- 

 eral important features of the departmental work, the departmental policy 

 and the departmental methods, I shall here refer to some of the subjects 

 treated in my reports for the preceding three years. In the report for 

 1913, I gave, among other items of information, (1) the chief divisions 

 into which the work of the department falls (p. 92), (2) the course of 

 study for the department and the manner in which it is determined (pp. 

 92 and 93), (3) the spirit of the department and the policy which I 

 believe to be necessary for building up a department of English and 

 Modern Languages adapted to this College (p. 94), and (4) the excep- 

 tional ditficulties which the English teachers of the department are com- 

 pelled to meet because the time allotted to required composition for ag- 

 ricultural students amounts to but two hours per term for one year (p. 

 95). 



In the report for 1914 I gave, among other things, (1) a table show- 

 ing the time relation of theme-reading to classroom instruction in Eng- 

 lish composition (x)p. 127 and 128) and (2) the growing emphasis placed 

 upon exposition in our work in English composition (p. 128). 



In my report for 1915 I emphasized (1) our special classes for stu- 

 dents deficient in grammar and spelling (p. 128) ; (2) our work in ad- 

 vanced composition (pp. 128 and 129) ; (3) our methods in public speak- 

 ing (p. 129) ; (4) our methods in German and French (p. 129) ; (5) the 

 development of interstate debating in the College (p. 130), and (6) the 

 difficulties growing out of the fact that the department has not one class- 

 room it can call its own (pp. 130 and 131). As the three annual reports 

 to which I refer above cover much of the ground which should be famil- 

 iar to those persons interested in the department, I shall omit, this year, 

 all discussion of the methods or policies of the department. 



The contests in which the department is directly interested are two — 

 the tristate debate with Iowa State College and Purdue University, and 



