292 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT-I 



ship at the University of Michigan, regarding the influence 

 on my ideas of its president, Henry Philip Tappan, and 

 of the whole work in that institution. Though many good 

 things may be justly said for the University of Virginia, 

 the real beginning of a university in the United States, in 

 the modern sense, was made by Dr. Tappan and his col 

 leagues at Ann Arbor. Its only defects seemed to me that 

 it included no technical side, and did not yet admit 

 women. As to the first of these defects, the State had 

 separated the agricultural college from the university, 

 placing it in what, at that period, was a remote swamp 

 near the State Capitol, and had as yet done nothing toward 

 providing for other technical branches. As to the second, 

 though a few of us favored the admission of women, Presi 

 dent Tappan opposed it; and, probably, in view of the 

 condition of the university and of public opinion at that 

 time, his opposition was wise. 



Recalled to Syracuse after five years in Michigan, my 

 old desire to see a university rising in the State of New 

 York was stronger than ever. Michigan had shown me 

 some of my ideals made real; why might not our own 

 much greater commonwealth be similarly blessed? 



The first thing was to devise a plan for a suitable fac 

 ulty. As I felt that this must not demand too large an 

 outlay, I drew up a scheme providing for a few resident 

 teachers supported by endowments, and for a body of non 

 resident professors or lecturers supported by fees. These 

 lecturers were to be chosen from the most eminent pro 

 fessors in the existing colleges and from the best men then 

 in the public-lecture field ; and my confidant in the matter 

 was George William Curtis, who entered into it heartily, 

 and who afterward, in his speech at my inauguration as 

 president of Cornell, referred to it in a way which touched 

 me deeply. 1 



The next thing was to decide upon a site. It must nat 

 urally be in the central part of the State; and, rather 



1 See Mr. Curtis s speech, September 8, 1868, published 

 by the university. 



