Tlie news in this publica-
1 is released for the press on
eipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Elxtension.
rOBER 20, 1920
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
VOL VI, NO. 48
UNIVERSITY DAY, OCTOBER 12
Ther of the university
Jniversity Day was this year cele-
itedas Founder’s Day and the ex-
ises were devoted to a commemora-
a of General William R. Davie, the
ther of the University; so called be-
jse no other man did as much has he
establish this institution. He wrote
; law creating it; his eloquence per-
aded the legislature to pass the>-law
grtering it in 1789; he was one of its
St trustees; he laid the corner-stone
its first building in 1793 and he was
ways one of its warmest friends and
ost loyal supporters.
The 126th anniversary of the Univer-
irsity was marked by:
1. The presentation of a rare Chretien
>rtrait of General Davie given by Hon.
Alwyn Ball of Charleston, whose wife
as a great grand-daughter of General
avie. The presentation address was
ade by Rev. William Way of Charles-
2. An address of acceptance by Hon.
0. Carr of Wilmington in behalf of
e University.
3. An address by President H. W.
lase, on Davie’s Vision and Present
ly Demands.
These eloquent addresses were all re-
irted at the time in the press of the
ate and will be given in full in the
Dvember .number of the University
lumni Review.
lUR college necessities
During the first two days of the open-
I session this fall 1309 students were
gistered at the’ University of North
irolina; and every inch of room space
the town and on the campus was en-
■ged long before the opening,
tal registration of the college
II run beyond 1400, or right around
e full total of last year.
For two years the University has
;e» crowded to its very doors. And
e same thing is true of practically
ery other one of the 71 colleges and
»k>r colleges of the state. The limits
eollege education have been reached
North Carolina, and the state has
)pped‘^growing in this essential partic-
A WORD OF WARNING
Benjamin H. Hill
Lnd this is the sorry situation in a
te that has 110 .million dollars invest-
in motor cars, 121 millions in bank
ount savings, and 163 millions in
srty bonds and war stamps securities,
jay nothing of other forms of wealth
ounting to a grand total of three bil-
1 dollars and more.
?he class-room, dormitory, and dining-
1 facilities of the colleges of the state
id to be doubled within the next year
1 quadrupled within the next five
The University Crisis
0 much for the college situation in
■th Carolina. Specific details wHl be
an to the public in the News Letter
t as soon as replies have been re-
ved to the 71 inquiries that have
le into the mails to the colleges of
rth Carolina.
Ve know the situation in detail at
! University, and we are therefore
nibiting these details as presented by
esident Chase on University Day.
[t is clear, said President Chase, that
a University with its present resour-
3 cannot do the job that North Caro-
a is calling on it to do. The trustees,
June, on the recommendation of the
liting committee, agreed that the
liversity should double its capacity
th* earliest possible moment.
To do this five things are necessary.
» University must (1) double its dor-
rtory space, (2) quadruple its feeding
Nagements, (3) treble its teaching
d •ffice space, (4) more than double
1 faculty and office force, and (5) in-
Mus« its salaries in accordance with
* n«w standards now prevailing
sdoghout the country.
A.»d the University must do all this
t jgradually, but without loss of time,
day means that hundreds of North
ffolina boys will be denied a college
Qcation.
And Why?
Beeause (1) its dormitories were built
house 469 students -they are now
using 738; (2) Swain Hall was built
feed 450 students—it is now feeding
5; (3) the University has, outside its
ofessional and scientific buildings,
only 19 class-rooms for general college
use; and (4) the University faculty can
teach no more men than it is now teach
ing.
Four-fifths of the new students at
the University from year to year come
from the public high schools of the
state. Unconditioned entrance to the
University means the completion of a
four-year high-school course. Five years
ago such high -school graduates in North
Carolina numbered 800; last spring they
numbered 3,000. Which is to say, the
number of such graduates has quadru
pled within five years, but the student
body at the University during the regu
lar session has increased only 40 per
cent during the same period. The rap
idly swelling number of the high-school
graduates of the state has overtaxed
the college facilities of North Carolina
at the University and everywhere else
in the state.
Since 1890 the student body has risen
from 200 in number to 1406. Here is a
sixfold increase in 30 years. It has
nearly trebled in the last 16 years. It
has nearly doubled in the last 10 years.
But the high-school graduates have in-
4creased more" than 300 percent during
the last five years.
The Summer School
But the growth of the Summer School
has been far beyond that of the student
body during the regular term time. In
1910 the number of students in the Sum
mer School was only 99, but in 1920 it
was 1200. Here is an increase of more
than 1100 percent in ten years. It is
easy to see what this means in terms
of the service which the University is
rendering in return to the public schools
The ! of fbe state. Eighty percent of our
term I Summer-School students are teachers
' in service. This yerr 481 of the Sum
mer-School students were c.’^rrying work
for college and graduate credit. Con
sider what this means ii.. terms of the
increasing teaching power of these men
and women.
Adding the students taught this sum
mer to those taught in the regular ses
sion last year, the University has given
instruction during the year ending Sep
tember 1 to 2,606 students. To 1,881 of
these it has given instruction of college
grade. And yet there are on file in the
office of the director of the Summer
School the names of some 200 teachers
who were turned away for lack of room
this summer; and, though no exact list
is available, almost as man^ more failed
to secure rooms in town. At a time
when the State is crying for trained
teachers; can it afford this loss?
The Regular Session
A year ago the University was facing
two possibilities: either the University
must restrict its student body to the
thousand or so students who could be
cared for without crowding or over
straining, or it might attempt to pack
its buildings and overload its faculty so
as to care for all who desired and were
prepared to enter.
Without hesita\;ion it chose the latter
course; and this choice was made be
cause all the colleges of the state were
crowded.
This year it has attempted to pursue
the same policy, but it has failed to
care for all who desired to enter. How
far it has .failed in this particular will
appear when the total denials of the
college authorities and the townspeople
are finally assembled. The hard fact is
that the University cannot continue to
care for its present student body with
out relief. The strain on plant, on stu
dents, and on faculty is far too great.
And yet the four-year high schools of
the state have only just now gotten
squarely on their feet. As a state-wide
system they are only twelve years old;
bqt these same schools last year enrolled
26/100 pupils, and four years from now
they will graduate at least 6,000. Which
means an entering class of nearly 1,000
at the University; the present fresh
man class already numbers 418.
Unless the high schools suddenly stop
growing, this is the situation which the
University must face.
The Material Situation
These facts bring us face to face with
the task which confronts the Univer
sity.
The University of North Carolina is
located in a small village of 1,500 peo-
No greater curse could be inflicted
upon any people than that of being
compelled to keep as their chief
laborers persons, who for any rea
son, it is unwise and unsafe to edu
cate.
We must have educated labor and
multiplied industries; we must have
schools of agriculture, of commerce,
of manufactures, mining, and tech
nology and, in short, all of polytech
nics; we must have them as sources
of power and respectability, and in
all of them our own sons must be
qualified to take the lead and point
the way. Polytechnic schools should
be an organic part of the Univer
sity.
Education is the one thing for
which no people ever yet paid too
much. The more they pay the rich
er they become. Nothing is so costly
as ignorance, and nothing so cheap
as knowledge.
If we do these things promptly,
vigorously, and liberally, it will soon
be that the sun in his cycles will not
let fall his rays on a greater or more
prosperous people. If we do not do
these things, we shall grow weaker
until we shall be despised as con
temptible. The stranger will come
in and posess the heritage and build
up the land we neglect, and be rulers
of the children we leave behind us. —
Address of Senator Ben H. Hill, in
1871.
good, because of local market, housing,
and servant problems. But assuming
that the town capacity increases from
574 to 750, the University must feed
2260 students or five times the capacity
of Swain Hall.
Teaching Space
The Law School is attempting to teach
150 students in the old library building,
in class rooms separated by board par
titions that do not reach the ceiling,
without proper equipment and without
facilities for the care of its valuable li
brary. The building canfiot be, made
over into a satisfactory class-room build
ing; a new building is necessary.
The capacity of the Medical School is
limited to 80 students; but the students
in the University who are preparing to
study medicine are three times the num
ber two years ago.
The Department of Geology has been
attempting to teach over 260 students
with laboratory and class-room supplies
adequate for less than 100.
The new School of Commerce, which
enrolled 150 students the first year of
its existence and is destined to become
one of the largest departments of the
institution, is literally doing its work
in holes and corners.
The Chemistry building has reached
the limits of its space, and the depart
ment anticipates that it will be neces
sary to limit the registration of students
for its courses this year.
The Library has practically exhausted
its resources, and additional rooms must
be provided.
There are no buildings providing any
thing like adequate class-room or office
space for the departments of the Col
the country over is due primarily to the
strength of her faculty. The University
faces the double problem of maintain
ing the strength of the faculty and of
largely increasing, probably within a
few years of doubling, its numbers. The
faculty at present numbers ninety mem
bers; its growth in numbers has not
kept pace with that of the student body.
Just how the University faculty is re
garded by other institutions may be
seen from the one fact that within the
last eighteen months nineteen of its
seventy-three members who rank above
the grade of instructor have had oppor
tunities to go to other institutions at
increased salaries. In some cases men
have had two, and in one case as many
as three, such opportunities. Sixteen
of these men have remained, but faith
in the future alone will not hold them
indefinitely. No institution in the coun
try could stand the loss of 26 percent of
its able men.
Some idea of the sacrifices which
many men are making to remain at the
University may be gathered from the
fact that the maximum salary of a full
professor — reached after a man has
served as a full professor for fifteen
years—'is $3,600, and that instructors
begin their teaching service at salaries
ranging from $1,160 to $1,650. Such
salaries are not only out of all propor
tion to the long training and experience
' required; they do not enable men to
live and rear their families in comfort
■ or security.
I But wholly aside from all this is the
^ fact that the University must compete
I in the open market in getting and keep-
ing men; loyal as men may be to an in-
lege of Liberal Arts, such as languages, stitution, they cannot disregard obliga-
history, economics and other social sci- j tions to their families and due recom-
gjjces. ' pense for their long training.
The old college chapel can now ac- ‘ And University salaries are far below
comodate only the freshman class. I the market, so far below that important
The older dormitory buildings are : positions are unfilled, just because it is
without exception in need of a thorough at present impossible to fill them with
pie, including the faculty, the employ
ees and their families. The housing
capacity of the village outside the cam
pus is therefore Small. The University
must be both an educational institution
and a public service corporation. It
furnishes light and power to itself and
to the town, operates its own filter and
power plant, has been forced to play an
active roll in housing its own faculty, is
now building a laundry plant from sheer
necessity—all this in addition to housing
in its own dormitories two-thirds of the
students and feeding three-fourths of
them. Even with its present numbers
these services constitute an almost in
tolerable overload. All over the cam
pus three and four students are in rooms
built for two. The University fed 832
students last year, but this was accom
plished only by re-opening the abandoned
and ill-equipped College Inn. The town
of Chapel Hill housed 611 students and
fed 674. It can do little, if anything,
more. The normal capacity of our dor
mitories, including the new building
under way, is 550, but last year we
housed on the campus 795 students an
overload of 66 percent of the capacity
at that time. All of which means that
housing accommodations must be pro
vided for over 1,500 to 2,000 students
mithin the next five years.
Private capital is becoming interested
in the student housing problem here,
and the business investment is so safe
that we may assume that perhaps 500
students can be accommodated in this
w»y during the next five years; which
leaves from 1,000 to 1,500 instead of
550, who must be housed on the campus
itself.
Taking 3,000 students as a minimum
estimate of the student body at the Uni
versity in the next five vears, we have:
Present dormitory capacity, normal 469
New dormitory building 81
Present town capacity 611
Estimated 5-year increase in town
capacity
Possible increase through private
investment 500
Number the University must pro
vide for 126i
overhauling.
The Gymnasium was built for a col
lege of 500 students.
The Alumni building is no longer ad
equate or suitable for the administra
tion offices of the University.
Outside the professional and scientific
buildings, only 19 class rooms are avail
able for general use.
Total., 8000
As for the feeding problem, the nor
mal capacity of Swain Hall is only 450.
We are now using the College Inn, a
decayed structure that ought to be closed
at the earliest possible moment. The
prospect for an increase in facilities for
feeding students in private homes is not
STATE APPROPRIATOINS
It is not generally known how largely
the present University plant is the result
of private benefactions. In the 126
years of its existence the state has
built only eight buildings at the Univer
sity, out of the total of twenty-four. Not
a single building was erected by the
State at Chapel Hill until 1905, when
the Chemistry building was built. In
cluding the $500,000 for building and
permanent improvements appropriated
in 1917, the State’s total appropriations
for buildings at the University amount
to less than a million dollars—and for
this sum the State has a plant to show
worth nearly two million.
The appropriation of $600,000 in 1917
for buildings and permanent improve
ments marked a distant forward step.
But it ihust be remembered that it was
intended only to meet some of the most
pressing needs of the University, and
that rising costs have more than cut in
half its building and purchasing power.
As indicative of the greatly reduced
purchasing power of the funds, it will
be noted that the dormitory now under
construction will cost for the building
alone $137,450. This same building
could have been built and equipped for
$50,000 five years ago. The purposes
for which this money has been expended
are summarized as follows:
Phillips Hall, building and
equipment., $166,994.01
New Power Plant and exten
sion of mains 59,916.61
Laundry -building and equip
ment.. 33,500.00
Steele Dormitory contract-
building only 137,450.00
Land Purchase and Campus
Extension 13,386.25
Building, Extension and Re
pairs 47,976.12
Permanent Departmental E-
quipment, furniture and
fixtures 60,140.96
Total $499,398.85
Faculty Problems
That the University holds an enviable
position among her sister institutions
first-rate men, and delay in the hope of
better conditions seems better than
taking inferior meii. In the meantime,
man after man is receiving calls else
where, and only faith in the future has
prevented already a large number of
resignations.
To add to the seriousness of the situ
ation, men for college positions have
never been so scarce. The graduate
schools, the great source of supply have
been depleted by the war and the eco
nomic confusion, men of more mature
years have been eagerly snatched up
because of the increase in numbers of
students all over the country, and many
men who left teaching positions during
the war have not returned to them.
A professor in another Southern Uni
versity recently remarked that his in
stitution was scouring the country for
instructors at $2,000 and no questions
asked. The University of North Caro
lina is attempting to attract superior
young men as instructors at salaries av
eraging $600 less, and cannot even com
pete financially for such young men
with the public high schools of its own
State. . . ^ ^
To make the situation concrete, let
us consider salaries at some of the in
stitutions with which we must compete.
In the South, we have lost men in
recent years to Texas, Virginia, and
Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has for some
time been paying $4,000; Texas has
placed its maximum for full professors
at $5,000, and plans to go to $6,000;
Virginia pays up to $4,500, and will have
in another year a $3,000,000 birthday
gift from its alumni with which to
make further increases. .
Competition Calk
One of our good men, a full profes
sor, received and refused this year, a
call to a middle western institution not
far away, which has just announced
$6,000 as its maximum salary—announ
ced it apologetically, with the state
ment that it does not equal salaries paid
by competing institutions, and with the
further statement that the announce
ment was made early in order that men
unwilling to accept the provisions of
the scale might have time for negotia
tions elsewhere. Another man whom
we were attempting to interest in a full
professorship here has just gone to the
University of Iowa at $6,500. With the
larger endowed institutions now pay
ing salaries ranging from six to ten
thousand dollars, the University cannot
compete. But it must compete with
other good institutions in the South and
in adjacent territory, or it must be con
tent to grow men into usefulness and
lose them when they could render max
imum service—to be a training school
for its more fortunate neighbors. Ten
or even five years ago it was far easier
to replace lost men than today.
In short, the faculty situation, like
the material situation, is nothing short
of critical.