The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1914-12-11
UNIVERSITY NEEDS
TWO new BUILDINGS
Plant Inadequate to Meet De-
mands Due to Phenomenal
Growth.

Unless the legislature at It's coming
session provides relief for the Uni
versity of Washington through an ap-
preparation for a Home Economics
building and a recitation hall, the uni
versity will face the certain prospect
of closing it's doors to some students
within two years, or the probable con-
tingency of fixing a tuition fee from
which to build new buildings. The
present plant of the university will be
working at full capacity when $500
students are enrolled. There will be
5000 students registered this year. Be-
fore the legislature of 1917 meets, the
$500 mark will have been passed, If
increase in registration is no more
than normal.
The university authorities feel that
the state wishes neither a tuition fee
imposed nor the opportunity to get
college training forbidden to students
otherwise able to get such training.
The proposal to charge tuition, even
nominal fee, such as $40 a semester,
has been before successive legislatures,
but each time 1t has been voted down.
The sentiment of the legislature to-
ward that plan for relief of the univer-
sity situation manifestly has been I'M
favorable. How to arrive at fair
means of excluding some students and
allowing others to register, when the
universitys enrolment shall have ex-
ceeded the capacity of the university
plant, is a problem that promises to
be difficult of settlement.
How could 1t be done to the salts
faction of the parents of the students
applying for admission? Would the
rule of first come, first served be re-
garded as adequate? Or would the
competitive examination on scholar
ship be popular? If the system Of
competitive examinations be set up,
the university must be at considerable
pains and expense to operate the sys-
tenn, and must call on the high schools
of the state to do considerable work
to make the system operate well.
Further, if succeeding legislatures neg
lect to provide buildings for the uni
versity, the establishment of any such
system must mean the exclusion of
larger and larger percentage Of the
youth of the state from university ed
ucation with the passing of every
year.
University Needs 100000.
The sum which President Landes
and the board of regents have decided
to ask of the legislature would solve
the whole problem of housing. And, If
granted, this 100000 would lift the
states total expenditure in buildings
at the university to only $475,000 in 10
years; for since 1899, the state has
spent just $175,000 on buildings for
the university exclusive of the A-YP
buildings. The whole amount invest
ed in the university plant-including
100000 for buildings erected at the
time of the Alaska Yukon Pacific ex-
position, buildings which were not paid
for out Of the general taxation fund
of the state-represents only 1881 per
student at the university This Is the
lowest building value per student Of
any state university in the country,
excepting Indiana.
By enrolment, number and equip
ment Of teachers, and academic stand
ards maintained, the University Of
Washington is in class with the
state universities of Kansas, Nebraska,
Ohio, Missouri and Iowa. Every one
of those states has a larger building
value per student than has Washing
ton Kansas value Is $505; Nebras-
kas, 1892; Ohio's, 1865; Missouri's,
$500, and Iowa's, s777. The building
values of the other great state uni
versities, into the class of which Wash
ington rapidly is rising, show Wash
ington operating under even more dis
advantage. CALIFORNIA; value Of
buildings per student is $1,430 Min
nesota's, $1,OO7; Illinois, $464, and
Michigan's, $3.50.
Many of the state universities much
smaller and much less renowned than
the University of Washington have
higher building values. The building
value per student at the University
of arizona is 1864, nearly three times
as much as at Washington; at Nevada,
$500; at Colorado, $728; at Idaho,
s1,04S at Montana, 5000; at Maine,
$685. at Wyoming, 1892, and at New
Mexico, $7S7.
Washington's Growth Rapid.
The privately endowed colleges and
universities, such as Chicago Clark,
Cornell, Bowdoin, Columbia, Johns
Hopkins, Princeton, Pennsylvania and
Harvard, show a much higher build
ing valuation, provided mostly by gifts
from individuals than the state uni
versity can show as an example of the
provision made by the people of Wash
ington for the higher education of their
sons and daughters.
Almost all these other universities,
too, have had the advantage of accom-
modating themselves to their growth,
because they have developed slowly
and their needs have been met as
they arose. The University of Wash
ington cannot look back upon any
such gradual development. The Uni
versity Of Washington as 1t stands to-
day is double-nearly triple-the Uni
versity of Washington of eight years
ago. In 1907, there were 1880 stu
dents registered in the University Of
1NochfocfAn This anrO11.