In 1872 by the General Assembly for salaries and support 25,000 52,300 46,000 47,457 64,500 In 1870 by the General Assembly for the support of the university. In 1874 by the General Assembly for aid and support It will be noticed that the appropriations grow larger and more regular as the institution develops and has various needs. It is the history of every State institution of the kind, that each year that brings increased usefulness brings also more wants for the succeeding year. The last appropriation by the Legislature for the biennial period ending June 30, 1890, amounts in the aggregate to fifty-two thousand dollars.2 Twenty thousand dollars of this fund was given to supplement the income fund, and twelve thousand to supplement the endowment fund. Special appropriations only were made until 1878, after which time an annual appropriation of twenty thousand dollars was made to the university by the Legislature, until 1884, when the amount was increased to twenty-eight thousand dollars (endowment fund). It will be seen by this that the State appropriation for the years 1888 to 1890 amounts to fifty-four thousand dollars annually. The aggregate appropriations from the date of the foundation of the university amount to $660,672.30.4 A few changes had taken place in the control of the university since its organization. Education was placed, in 1858, in charge of the Board of Education, but this board was abolished in 1864, and the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction restored. The General Assembly by this act assumed more direct control over education than previously. From January 15, 1849, to December 25, 1858, the Governor had been ex officio member of the board. From February 25, 1847, until March 12, 1858, the Superintendent of Public Instruction had been ex officio president of the board of trustees. By the act of March 12, 1858, he was made ex officio a member of the board, which continued until December 25, 1858, at which time the office of Superintendent ceased to exist by virtue of the Board of Education. This latter body remained in force until 1864, when it was enacted that it should no longer exist and that the board of trustees should report directly to the Legislature. In 1870 the Superintendent became again ex officio a member of the board of trustees and so remained until the membership was abolished in 1872. It was restored again in 1876, however. The General Assembly insti 'Laws of 1884, chap. 112, p. 114. 2 Laws, 1888, chap. 132, p. 169. 3 Letter from President Charles A. Schaeffer, December 9, 1888. 4 President Schaeffer. tuted, by an act passed in 1870, the board of regents as the governing power of the university. The law school was organized in 1868, and the medical department in 1870. SEMINARY LANDS. As has been before shown, the Federal Government gave the State of Iowa two townships, more or less, amounting to 45,928.24 acres. Up to 1859 there had been sold of this land 31,400 acres at an average price of three dollars and fifty-two cents per acre. The lands were originally appraised at five dollars per acre and subsequently raised to ten dollars. Had they not been sold until the price of ten dollars per acre was reached the income would have been more than twice what it is to-day.' Sales were made subsequent to 1859, so that there now remains unsold 2,059.7 acres. The fund received from this source amounts to $261,266.64, including sales from saline lands.1 There were originally 46,100 acres in the saline grant; of these the university received less than 4,600 acres (4,578.43), with some saline land contracts, which amounted to but little. Of these lands there remain unsold over three thousand acres (1886). In the report above alluded to, we find the following statement referring to the endowment fund: "But for the hur ried sales it would have been not less than five hundred thousand dollars, and with the entire saline grant it would have been not less than a million." 2 THE STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. In 1858 the Legislature of Iowa passed an act to establish a "State Agricultural College and Model Farm," to be connected with the entire agricultural interests of the State. A board of commissioners was appointed to buy a farm, erect a college building, select a faculty and or ganize a college.3 A farm of 640 acres was purchased in 1859 for the use of the college, and a purely agricultural institution was started. In 1872 the State accepted the agricultural land grant of Congress, and the Agricultural College was enlarged so as to include studies in the mechanical arts. Ten years later the course was again broadened by authority of the Legislature. Section 2621 of the Iowa Code institutes: "That there shall be adopted and taught at the State Agricult ural College a broad, liberal and practical course of study in which the leading branches of learning shall relate to agriculture and the mechanic arts, and which shall also embrace such other branches of learning as will most practically and liberally educate the agricultural and industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life, including military tactics."+ 1 Report of Officers of the State University, 1886, Iowa Doe. II, 7. Documents of Iowa, 1886, II, 7. 3 Annual Catalogue, 1888, 21. APPROPRIATIONS. When the Agricultural College was incorporated, the Legislature appropriated ten thousand dollars for the purchase of a farm, and the county of Story donated the same amount in bonds bearing seven per cent. interest, while individuals gave seven thousand dollars additional in bonds and notes. The State also gave five sections of land in Jasper County, originally given by the Federal Government to the State for the building of a capitol. From this land the college realized fourteen thousand dollars; before the reception of the Congressional grant there was a fund of thirty thousand dollars besides the amount spent in purchasing a site and erection of a farm house. The Legislature also, in 1864, appropriat d twenty thousand dollars, and two years thereafter ninety-one thousand dollars, for the purpose of a college building.1 The college received from the national grant two hundred and forty thousand acres of land; this land was partly sold and partly leased, and the fund derived from the same yields an average income of about forty-five thousand dollars, and the entire income is about sixty thousand dollars from productive sources. The total State appropriation to June 30, 1887, is $454,098.75. MINNESOTA. TERRITORIAL POLICY. 2 The importance of higher education was early recognized by the settlers of Minnesota. Two years after the organization of the Territory, the Legislature petitioned Congress for a grant of one hundred thousand acres of land to endow a university, and on the very day of this petition two townships were set aside for that purpose.3 The Legislature went on to enact that the University of Minnesota should be established at or near the Falls of St. Anthony and should have the income from all land thereafter granted by the United States for university purposes. Under this grant the regents selected a large portion of the lands and erected a costly edifice, but they were soon obliged to mortgage both building and lands in order to meet the obligations incurred.4 ADMISSION OF THE STATE INTO THE UNION. Affairs were in this condition when Congress passed the act admitting Minnesota to the Union, by which two townships of land were 1Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1867, 28. 2 Laws of 1851, 41. 3 Act of February 19, 1851, U. S. Statutes at Large, IX, 568. 4 Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1867, 6, 8, 75. granted for the use and support of a State university. There is no reference to the lands previously granted, such as we find in similar acts relating to other States. "Certainly it was not the intention of Congress to turn over the debts and prospectively encumbered lands of an old and badly managed Territorial institution, but to give the State' that was to be, a grant for a State university, free from all connections with Territorial organizations."2 The security of the institution was guaranteed by the Constitution of 1857, adopted in the year of the second land grant, which reads as follows: "The location of the University of Minnesota, as established by existing laws, is hereby confirmed, and said institution is hereby declared to be the University of the State of Minnesota. All the rights, immunities, franchises, and endowments heretofore granted or conferred are hereby perpetuated unto the said university, and all lands which may be granted hereafter by Congress, or other donations, for said university purposes, shall vest in the institution referred to in this section."3 Efforts were at once made to open the university, but the financial crisis of 1857 and the Civil War checked further action and encumbered the university with debt. In 1864 the Legislature appointed a special commission to dispose of a portion of the public lands, and by this means all debts were discharged.1 PERMANENT ORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITY. The present organization of the university dates from 1868, when an act was passed "to reorganize the University of Minnesota and to establish an agricultural college therein."5. In the following year college classes were first organized. The act of 1868 provided that the university should have the income from the agricultural college grant,7 which lands, as well as those before acquired, were to be sold, the proceeds to form a permanent university fund at the disposal of the regents. The agricultural college lands were not to be sold for less than five dollars an acre, nor for less than their appraised value. From the university lands that have been sold something over eight hundred 1 U. S. Statutes at Large, XI, 167. Regents' Report, 1860, cited in Report of Commissioner of Education for 1867, 6, 8, 75. Art. VIII, sec. 4. Poore, Charters and Constitutions, 1037. This Constitution exempts from taxation colleges, universities, and seminaries of learning. Art. IX, sec. 3. 4 + Catalogue for 1874-75, 26. 5 Ibid., 26, General Laws of 1868, 1. 6 There had been a preparatory school since 1867. 7 This land (one hundred and twenty thousand acres) had been set apart in 1865 for Minnesota Agricultural College. This institution, founded in 1858, had received from the State at least ten thousand dollars, besides certain swamp lands. In 1868 its property was transferred to Stevens' Seminary. See Public Laws of 1857-58, 43; General Laws of 1861, 199; General Laws of 1865, 26; Special Laws of 1868, 404; Report of Commissioner of Education for 1867-68, 182. 8 Revised Statutes of 1878, 520. thousand dollars has been received, from which there is an annual income of about thirty-seven thousand dollars.1 EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF MINNESOTA. Minnesota's policy has been persistently in favor of State education. While Congress was unusually liberal in the seminary grant, the direct assistance of the State has been great. Up to July 31, 1888, five hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars had been appropriated, exclusive of interest or permanent funds. The direct annual appropriation is now forty thousand dollars. KANSAS. THE UNIVERSITY OF LAWRENCE. An institution of learning bearing the name "The University of Lawrence," was opened in Lawrence, Kans., April 11, 1859, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church, but financial embarrassment compelled its early suspension and led to a new organization under the control of the Protestant Episcopal Church known as "The Lawrence University of Kansas," for which a charter was received from the Legislature in 1861.2 These two educational institutions-the former perhaps the earliest educational enterprise in the State-have a fitting place in this study because of their close historical connection with the University of Kansas. This connection is established by an ordinance of the city of Lawrence securing to the State forty acres of land for a campus and all rights and interests in the Lawrence University. The old Presbyterian institution, so short-lived, left to its successor the mere foundation of a building, upon which the latter, by the aid of a donation of twenty thousand dollars, one-half contributed by Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston, and one-half by citizens of Kansas, erected the structure called North College. It was this building in which the University of Kansas began its work, and in it the entire work, was continued until 1872.4 THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 3 By an act of Congress of January 29, 1861, seventy-two sections of land were set apart and reserved for the use and support of a State university in Kansas.5 The State accepted the trust in an act of March 1, 1864, which provided for the location of a university at or near Lawrence, and declared the object of the university to be, "to provide the 1 Letter from the registrar, Frank A. Johnson, January 25, 1889. 2 Twenty-second annual catalogue, University of Kansas, 95. |