DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 155 



in the student paper, The Hoi cad, I wish to mention here, as a matter 

 of record, that a very important change was made last year in the man- 

 ner of selecting the entire editorial and reportorial staff of the Holcad. 

 The fiscal 3'ear of the college paper is from spring vacation to spring 

 vacation. The staff which served from the spring of 1916 to the spring 

 of 1917 worked out a plan for placing the selection of members of future 

 staffs upon a competitive basis, and the students in their annual election 

 approved the chauge by a very large majority. One feature of the plan 

 is that future editors-in-chief will win their positions only after com- 

 petition, first as reporters, later as assistant editors, with a considerable 

 number of other aspirants for the place. Any student in the college 

 mav compete for a position. The details of this plan are given in The 

 Holcad of March 20, 1917. 



In closing I wish to express my appreciation of the very substantial 

 support which the President of the College and the Board of Agriculture 

 have given to my department. The salaries which I was authorized, last 

 spring, to offer for new instructors enabled me to bring in three strong 

 men to fill the places vacated by resignation. The increases granted this 

 year are a decided encouragement to the members of the department, 

 and in many ways other than in increasing salaries the President and the 

 Board have consistently supported the department. 



I wish also to refer here to the energy and the ability with which 

 the members of my department have carried on the year's work. I am 

 especially grateful to those Avho so actively worked upon the revision of 

 several of our courses during the month of June. 



Very respectfully submitted, 



AV. W. JOHNSTON, 

 Professor of English and Modern Languages. 



East Lansing, Mich., June 30, 1917. 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS. 



President F. S. Kedzie, College. 



Dear Sir — I have the honor to submit for your consideration the fol- 

 lowing report on the work of the Department of Mathematics for the 

 jear ending June 30, 1917: 



During the year the teaching staff of the department was as follows : 



L. C. Plant, Professor. 



M. F. Johnson and L. C. Emmons, Assistant Professors. 

 S. E. Crowe, R. H. Reece, G. G. Speeker, W. M. Wible, E. C. 

 Kiefer, W. A. Reinert, and Vern James, Instructors. 



During the year the members of the staff have not only utilized their 

 spare time in broadening their mathematical knowledge and in correlat- 

 ing their work with that of allied departments, but a number of the 

 members have done graduate work in our best universities. Assistant 

 Professor Emmons spent his year's leave of absence at Harvard Uni- 



