Iva1'rUTES OF M BOARD OF TRUSTEIS       May 31, 1910



Freshman class of the State University in less than three or four years. The

maintenance of the Academy is thus imperative, in order to bridge over the interval

between the commonn schools and the University. We cannot eliminate the Academy,

however much we may desire to do so, until the high schools can do the inter-mediate

work,   The system of appointment which links the common school, through the Academy,

to the University is the most popular feature in the legislation which makes the

University the head of the educational system of the Commonwealth.  Without it we

should have been unable to hold the half cent tax in 1893, and without it we sould

be unable to prevent its repeal today.  It is sincerely hoped that the high schools

will, within a reasonable time, attain the necessary efficiency in the work of pre-

paring students for the University.  Meanwhile we must keep faith with the state

or forfeit both their support and their goodwill.  Twenty-two percent of the under-

graduate matriculates of the State University last year were entered in the Academy,

and a very considerable proportion of those who entered the University through the

Academy came as appointees on competitive examination from their respective counties.

     WiJe must now either make a bold effort to recover lost ground and to move forward,

or else stand still and fall hopelessly to the rear.   We have reached a stage when

it will be necessary, in order to justify further appeals to the Legislature, to

show more substantial results than we are at present achieving.   We are making good

scholars, good scientists, good engineers, good agriculturists, but with the means

at our disposal we could take care of many more matriculates than we have, and in

order to justify further appropriations we must show larger results.   The University

of Illinois has seven or eight times our income, but it has seven or eight times our

number of students.   With twenty percent more of income we could readily take care

of twice our present numbers, and be it remembered numbers count for much, both in

the estimation of the Legislature and of the general public, and it is quite apparent

that with double our present numbers or treble, we could with a much more hopeful

prospect of Success importune the Legislature for further endowment.