Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1905-10-12
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OPENS.
Enrolment for Fail Term is largest ii
History Of Institution

History OF Institutions.
The agricultural college opened last
week with the largest fall term en-.
rollment in it's history. On the first
day of registration the enrolment OF
students was 40 per cent greater than
on the first day of last year. The work
! of the first week is now completed and
the 40 per cent of increase has been
maintained. Every train brings In
scores of students and they are coming
from ever. corner of the state. All
sections of the state are represented
among the new students. There is a
much larger proportion of high school
graduates than heretofore, and Prof.
Mathews, chairman of the classified.
ton committee, reports that practi
| cally all are entering the regular four.
year courses, and that he has classified
only one special student thus far.
Furthermore, the personnel of the
student body is noticeably improved.
There is no tendency to rowdyism ap.
parent anywhere. On the contrary,
| the rooms of the Young Mems and
| Young Women's Christian associations
are the centers of interest for an in
creasing number of students, and those
societies have membership many
times greater than year ago. During
! the summer vacation the Christian as.
| ISOLATION rooms were refurnished and
redecorated and are now the most at
| tractive rooms in the college. The lead
ing men and women in all student en-
terprises and college activities are
now active workers in the Christian
associations.
The increased attendance and in
| terest at the college was anticipated
as natural result of certain causes
which have been working out from
''the school on the hill'' for some time
past. The high school athletic meet
| held here last week under the auspices
Of the college undoubtedly attracted
| scores of high school students in this
/ direction for their college course. The
| farmers excursions run in here last
! farmers and others from all parts of
the state and made it easier for them
to send their children to the school
( which they had themselves visited and
/ whose teachers they had met, and
/ whose work they had inspected. But
what counted most in results, judging
| from the large number of new stu
! dents here from the high schools, is
the fact that representatives from the
college have been giving commence
ment addresses and ether lectures at
most of the high schools in the state,
thus meeting the young people person
ally and directing their attention this
way.
These are only a few of the many
movements set on foot to make the
people in every part of the state
familiar with their own college and
give them an interest in it's success.
The increasing prosperity of the col
lege is no surprise to the people of
| Bookings, who are cognizant of what
has been going On. But when your
correspondent has tried to learn who
was responsible for these good works
each college man from the president
down has disclaimed all credit and has
given the praise to others. And 1T
seems to be the fact that the crafty
ing results are due to no one person
alone, but to the united efforts of an
energetic and harmonious faculty and
| the enthusiastic personal work of a
splendid body of loyal students. And
there seems to be glory enough for
/ everybody connected with the work
in the fact that the college is appar-
entity entering upon one of the most
prosperous years in its history.