The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-19
THE A UNIVERSITY.
The Trustees Ask for an Appropriation and
Expatiate on Its Needs.

The trustees of the Indiana State University
at Bloomington yesterday filed their annual re-
port with the Governor. A statement is fur
nished from a committee, of which Col. r. S.
Robertson is chairman, appointed specially by
the trustees, mentioning the urgent needs of
the institution, to which the attention of the
Legislature is called. 'The State University"
this committee says, Through its career Of
more than half a century, has been left to the
meager appropriations which each Legislature
has deemed sufficient to carry on its actual work,
at as low a cost as could be estimated, and has
thus been compelled to economic to the verge
of penuriousness, instead of being able to reach
out with liberality to grasp the new ideas and
developments of modern science, and the actual
necessities of modern education. Notwithstand-
ing this fact, it has assumed a position
of more than local renown, and has
bean a source of incalculable benefit
to the State. y y = We feel that we
have a right to ask Of the State that she pro-
vide for her children as becomes a great State,
rich in agricultural. mineral and manufacturing
wealth. If one citizen of our State, moved by
general impulses and noble aims, can endow a
denominations college with a gift of between
g 40NA u oAA AAebiA q 4AAhAOh WHO'S ~ NSANS viz
mere interest of which amounts to more than has
been appropriated annually to the necessities of
the State University, what could not, and should
not, the great of State Indiana do, to make of its
university one of the greatest universities OF the
worldf We do not appear in the character OF
mendicants asking for aims, but in the character
of stewards of a trust, who report the condition
of the trust and ask for means to carry out the
orders and instructions which the State has
giyon US in regard to one of its greatest and
dearest interests. We hope the time will soon
come when we shall not be compelled at every
session of the Legislature to stand before the
assembly like Oliver Twist before his master,
crying for more"
The loss of the university by the fire of
1883 was $l04. 200. The citizens of Monroe
county donated $50, 900, and, with the insurance
of $40, 900, the trustees were enabled to erect
new buildings, but it is believed that an add
tional $50, 900 will be required to complete the
work begun. The gifts OF specimens which
have been received, together with the purchases
which can be made with an appropriation of
$50, 900, will make a better exhibit in the differ
ent departments of the institution than before
the fire.
Instead of asking for an appropriation for a
new library the trustees ask the Legislature to
make the university a gift of the books in the
State Library. The State Library for years.
they say, 'has been of doubtful utility to the
people of Indiana. Situated as it is, with chang
ing control, subject only as to it's increase to the
ideas Of those who have from time to time been
chosen to oversee its affairs, without a cata-
logue which would indicate to students where
they could find their specialties in research, it is
probably fair to say, without casting any re-
Elections upon its management in the past, that
1t has not been, is not now, and will not become
of sufficient use to tho people of the State to pay
for the cost of its maintenance. Why not give
it to the State University and thus utilize it to
the best advantage by opening its unused pages
to students who will hereafter become the bull
warks of the State2 Careful. and candid con-
sideration of this question is urged"
During the fiscal year the total receipts were
$S5, 1876. Is, and the expenditures amounted to
$73, $40. 20, leaving a balance of $11, $500. In
stead of the usual appropriation of $23, 600 the
trustees ask for $25, 225.