25
                        M. E. COOLEY, CONSULTIITG ENGINEER

                                    Associates
                         H. C. Anderson     H. E. Riggs
                                  86 Park Place
                                  Newark, N. J.

                                                  December 7th, 1916

              Mr. J. I. Lyle,
                   39 Cortlandt St.,
                        New York City.


76.fler ;t hn  My dear Irvine:

h6,h~t42 F~v,4C.   Agreeable to your request of last evening, I am glad
64\, Oc.1'3   A4to give you my ideas of the. advantage to be gained by the Con-
t4 by    14 tl  solidation of the several separate Engineering Schools at the
I-4-11,14   Kentucky University, into one Engineering Department, with one
             Dean in control of all branches of Engineering.   It seems to
             me the advantages of such an organization are so numerous, ,that
             it is not necessary to mention all of them, so will confine my
             remarks to only a few of the most important.   I would also
             like to say that such ideas as I will express are governed by
             actual experience, working in an organization of this kind for
             the last sixteen years.

                  1.  My idea of the organization would be, one Dean of
                  Engineering and a head Professor for each branch of
                  Engineering, stch as Mechanical, Electr-c2al, Civil,
                  Chemical, Mining and Archiitecture, the head Professor
                  of each of these branches to be responsible directly
                  to the Dean of the Engineering Department.

                  2.  The several head Professors should constitute a stand-
                  ing committee, with the Dean of Engineering as Chairman;
                  this committee to have regular meetings, at these meet-
                  ings such important subjects as the general policy of the
                  department, the teaching force, salaries, subjects taught,
                  methods of teacaing and methods of discipline, could all
                  be thoroughly discussed and some definite course of pro-
                  cedure for each individual case would be adopted or re-
                  commended to the faculty for their consideration.

                  3.  I believe the greatest advantage of this consolidation
                  would be the increased efficiency and economy in the teach-
                  ing staff. With the separate schools as they now have,
                  there must be a large amount of duplication of courses
                  and work; this would be eliminated at once.   You will also
                  find a very marked increase in the teaching efficiency of
                  the several departments.  For example, you will find that
                  one department is able to teach some Particular subject
                  better than another and vice versa.   There is no reason
                  that I can see or that I have ever found, why students,
                  say in the Civil Engineering Department should not go:
                  to the Mechatidal'. Engineering Department for part of
                  their instruction.  In fact, I think such an arrangement
                  is very desirable.  For example, at the University of
                  Michigan, our lechanical Engineers are taught subjects