Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-14
BESSEY ON The UNIVERSITY
Acting chancellor Presents Report to
Board of Regents,
INSTITUTION is IN A GOOD CONDITION
Total Number of Registrations for
the Ycnr VIII ne over Two
Thousnnd-PIans for
the Future.


port to the Board OF Regents, Acting Chan
ccllor Bessey treats OF the ultimate removal
Of the State university from it's present ST @
In the city to the state farm and sugg s
to the board that It would be wise to begin
planning for such changes. After reviewing
the work of the university since the open
ing Of the present school year. the report
deals with a number OF plans for the future
and suggests among other things the de-
velopment of the agricultural college en-
broader lines than now exist, the ultimate
adoption OF the ALLY plan OF education,
a proper athletic field for out-o;-door games,
adding to the efficiency OF the depa' tmen. of
animal husbandry and the inst tuition OF
street car service to the campus. The re-
port follows:
LINCOLN, Dec, l2.-To the Board of
Regents of the University: The work OF
the present year in the university has
opened with great promise of success.
From al departments the reports are very
the work has Jagged In an" way. ] wish
TO congratulate you upon the quality of
professors and instructors
The total number Of students in the uni
vcrsty at the present time is larger than
ever before Up to the present 622 new stu
dents have mntriculated. This is an in
crease of thirty-four over the number at
fee 1850 students have been registered.
This, however. does not include the stu
dents IN the summer session nor in the
school of music. There will doubtless be
enough additions to the present regstra tion
to bring the total number of the year up to
Registration of students.
The reports made by the professors indi-
cate that in most departments there has
been marked increase in the number of
students The following is the summary of
these reports: Art, SO; agriculture, I; ami
NAL husbandry. 6; botany l5S chemistry,
526; domestic science. l3; civil engineering,
q; electrical engineering, 90; eloGution, lii IS;
Greek,S 172 American history 27l: European
law, O' Is Isl; -''i matRematcs, 545 mechanicai
drawing and mechanical designing, 40; me-
haqSh medns enG4nns GrnEs 3 %tary aaS
phiosopRgs.' 5S So 55S; p6ysicai al PsS tTsnHss 5io
languages, a2S; zoology 100
In the agricultural school the number en-
rolled is now thirty-three a very excellent
school began year ago there were but two
or thre students and now we have good
school of earnest, enthusiastic young men.
The numbers indicated above in different
departments have resulted In most
There is scarcely a department which has
room enough to comfortably take care. of
It's students What we can do hereafter,
when the numbers increase still more, Is
more than | can predict.
Thus far during the year all the teach
ers of all grades have been faithfully at
work. Prof. Nicholson had short leave of
absence at the opening of the year and
Prof; Hastings has already entered upon
his short leave of absence for Investigations
to be made in Mexico; otherwise, as far as
know every teacher has net every class
at its appinted time every day.
1t Is a pleasure to report also that the
students have been orderly and studious.
They have enjoyed unusual measure OF
ness having come to my attention. One
student, George Vernon Wrightman, from
Lexington, Neb.. died of diphtheria shortly
after the opening ofrthe semester He was
cared for by the Young Mems Christian as
Rehard N Moran e ded at hs s" bome af
typhoid fever.
The work Of the students has been con-
tinuous, not having the usual Interrupt
tions from holidays or half holidays, The
effect of this continuous work has shown
itself in the small number Of delinquent
students reported at the end of the first two
months of work
some time ago the alumni and former stu
dents of the University of Nebraska in
% and as ' result It has about bout rs members. mem e
The formation of such clubs Is to be com
mended and 1t is hoped that they will be
organized in every town where there Is an
accredited high school. Efforts have been
made in my Office to further this matter and
We hope for good results in the near flu
ture.
Athletics in the University.
The condition of athletics in the univer-
'!ty has been considerably improved this
year. The Athletic board has been efficient
and has succeeded in keeping out profess
sionalism among the young men. At re-
cent meeting they revised the rules so that
in the future the control now exercised by
this board will be still more marked. 4
copy of these rules is presented as an APP
pendX to this report. The university foot
ball team has played many games and |
am happy to say that no one has been seri-
ously injured.
In this connection l might call your at
tention to the urgent need of taking steps
to secure proper athletic field for the va
rious out-of-door games played by the stu
defense of athletics Many years of OBJ
servation have shown me that vigorous
outdoor sports contribute much to the
strength, hardhood manliness and courage
or our young men. regret that so few
take part in these sports and wish that YOU
could do something toward encouraging a
more general participation in the various
games
steam tunnels and the closing of the great
trenches have restored the grounds once
more to their original condition. The COM
pletion of the scales for weighing coal has
this fuel.
The completion of the Interior finish OF
Mechanic Arts hall has rendered the rooms
in this building much more usable, The
61dag OF Of dnSs mS5eTa she'd for the de-
enabled us to house valuable material
which was subject TO injury from the
has added facilities for. work in the foun-
dry. The brick sidewalk on the east side
of the campus is completed and is a great
improvement over the old plank walk
Among minor improvements may be men
toned also the clocks, which have been put
into three of the buildings I'm convenient
places so as to enable instructors and stu
dents to interpret the signal bells
The improvements on the farm are
progressing satisfactorily. The superin-
tendent of building and construction will
report TO you the particular condition OF
each of the items and i may here merely
refer to the early completion of the Ex-
pertinent Station building. the building OF
the power plant the deep we'll and pump
and the water tower In this connection /
may refer to my visit to the Iowa Agricul-
tural college In October, where l made a
careful investigation of the water system
adopted there / trust to be able to make
some suggestions when the proper time
comes, as TO the economic planning of the
pipe system for the distribution of the
water,
/ may call attention to the corrals which
have been repaired and others which have
been newly built, adding much TO the efii-
cheney of the department of animal hus-
bandry.
cannot refrain from suggesting at this
point the need of planning to eXpend more
money upon the farm in the way of keep
ing up appearances. 1t will not take much
money to keep up every part, especially
the parts which are adjacent to the build
lngs in the best condition. Your attention
has been repeatedly called to this by the