| | 221 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1907) March 15, 1907  | | | | Published: | 1907 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At a called meeting of the Board of Visitors of the
University of Virginia, held in the President's office, Friday,
March 15, 1907, I respectfully resign my office as Professor of Natural
Philosophy in the University of Virginia; the resignation to
take effect at the close of the present session. Will you kindlytransmit the accompanying open letter
to the Rector at the next meeting of the Board of Visitors? I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your communication
of the 3rd inst., conveying to the Rector of the University,
the Honorable Armistead C. Gordon, and to myself, your resignation
of the professorship of Natural Philosophy in the University
of Virginia. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 222 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1907) May 21, 1907 | | | | Published: | 1907 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At a called meeting of the Board of Visitors of the University
of Virginia, in the President's Office, Tuesday, May
21st, 1907, At a recent meeting the Board of Governors of the
Colonnade Club of the University adopted a resolution requesting
the President of the Club to petition the Board of Visitors
for a reduction in the rent of Pavilion VII., West Lawn. The
rent as fixed by the Board at their last meeting is $150.00,
and we now beg the Board to consider reducing this to the nominal
rental of $50.00. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 223 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1907) June 10, 1907 | | | | Published: | 1907 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | The Board of Visitors met in annual session in the
President's Office, University of Virginia, on above date, I enclose herewith, for transmission to the Rector
and Board of Visitors, at their coming meeting, my resignation
as professor of Physiology and Therapeutics in the University
of Virginia. After seventeen years of unbroken service
in the University of Virginia, I now tender to you my resignation
as professor of Physiology and Therapeutics, to take
effect at the end of this session. My reasons for this step
are that I have been offered, and have accepted, the Presidency
of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, at Blacksburg,
Virginia. I beg to acknowledge with profound regret the receipt
of your communication to the Board of Visitors, tendering
your resignation as Professor of Physiology and Therapeutics
at this University, to take effect at the end of the
session. I shall transmit this communication to the Visitors
of the University to be acted upon by them at their
approaching meeting, on June 10th. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 226 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1908) January 6, 1908 | | | | Published: | 1908 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At a called meeting of the Board of Visitors on above
date in the President's Office, East Lawn, Enclosed please find copy of my letter to The Virginia
Trust Co. of this State, which you will please file as my report
on the loan of $12,000.00 to Messrs. A. W. Mosby and H.
E. DeWitt. I am sending you herewith, for the account of the Rec-
tor and Visitors of the University of Virginia: The Virginia Trust Company insists upon its charge of
$150.00 for its services with the loan of bonds to the National
Exchange Bank. Mr. Gilliam, President of the Bank,
took the position, in which I concurred, that $50.00 was a
fair amount for his bank to pay for this service, and, while
I feel that the charge of the Virginia Trust Company is somewhat
excessive, inasmuch as they have declined to reduce it,
I have authorized them to charge the account of the University
of Virginia with $100.00, in settlement of balance on
this transaction. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 227 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1908) April 10, 1908 | | | | Published: | 1908 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At the meeting of the Board of Visitors called for this
date, there being present only the Rector, and Visitors Craddock
and Harmon, an informal conference was held with the
President, and adjournment made subject to call of the Rector. University of Virginia,
April 10th, 1908. As you know from my reports to you of earlier date,
I have for some time felt the coming on of age, and the inevitable
necessity for laying down the responsibility of my
pleasant duties in the service of the University. I beg to acknowledge with sincere regret your communication
of March 16th, putting into my hands, for transmission
to the Visitors, your resignation of the Professorship of
Chemistry in the University of Virginia. I shall present to
the Visitors, at their approaching meeting, your formal letter
of resignation, with the request that they take such action
as they may deem fit and proper. It is with great regret that I feel compelled, by the
pressure of age, and resulting loss of health and strength,
to give up work in the service of the University of Virginia May I ask you to tender to the Rector and Board of Visitors
of the University, my resignation as Professor of Pathology,
to take effect September 15th, 1908, and also convey
to them my regret at being "compelled" by the insistence of
the call to a similar chair in my alma mater, the University
of Wisconsin, to leave the Medical school at this period in
its development. I send herewith the copyright
of the "Geology of Virginia" for the department of Geology
of the University of Virginia, for its use without limitation
as to time or other considerations. I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the copyright to
the "Geology of Virginia" for the Department of Geology in
the University of Virginia. I beg to renew our very sincere
appreciation of your great kindness and generosity. I believe
that the William Barton Rogers Chair of Geology here, since
the establishment of the State Survey at the University, is
destined to carry out in a noble way the original plans so
splendidly laid out by your husband. I now make my third and final report, acting under decree
in this cause of January 4th, 1908. This report embraces a
full and detailed account of the Receipts, Disbursements, and
Transactions of the Norfolk Bank for Savings and Trusts, Adm.
c. t. a., of Edward W. James, deceased. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 228 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1908) June 15, 1908 | | | | Published: | 1908 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At the annual meeting of the Board of Visitors of the
University of Virginia, at 10 00 A. M. on above date, in the
President's Office, Referring to the resolution adopted at the meeting of
the Board held the 10th of April, wherein it was provided
that the Finance Committee should sell the "Stump Haul Fishery"
in Princess Anne Co., (the same being a part of the
Estate of Mr. James), provided the sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars
could be obtained therefor, Please accept my resignation as Adjunct Professor
of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Virginia,
effective Sept. 15th, 1908. I am directed by the Miller Board of Trustees of the
University of Virginia to transmit to you to be laid before
your Board, the following resolutions of the Miller Board
of Trustees of the Agricultural School of the University of
Virginia, adopted at their meeting held on Saturday, June
13th, 1908:- | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 230 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1909) March 23, 1909 | | | | Published: | 1909 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At a meeting of Board of Visitors of the University,
at 2:00 P. M., on above date in the President's Office, East
Lawn, Learning from our honored President that you would
probably meet at the University very soon for the transaction
of important business, I take advantage of the opportunity
to bring a personal matter of high importance to
myself before you. I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your communication
of the 18th inst., forwarding your letter of resignation as
Professor of Teutonic Languages in the University of Virginia.
I have communicated your letter to the Rector and Visitors of
the University and they have commissioned me to express their
profound regret at your decision. I believe you will understand
how keenly and genuinely I share with the Visitors this
sentiment of regret. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 234 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1910) March 26, 1910 | | | | Published: | 1910 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At a meeting of the Board of Visitors of the University
of Virginia, at 2:00 P. M. on above date, in the President's
Office, In pursuance of our conversation, I have the honor to
request that I be granted a leave of absence from the University
of Virginia for the remainder of the current session, so
that I may spend this period in Europe. I would not make this
request if I believed that my absence would be detrimental to
the University of Virginia. I have been fortunate in procuring
the consent of Dr. George A. Wauchope, of the University
of South Carolina, to fill my chair during my absence. Dr.
Wauchope is a Virginian, a graduate of Washington and Lee
University, and a Doctor of Philosophy of Johns Hopkins
University, and aprofessor of most successful experience. He
is a man of culture and refinement, an excellent writer,
and I am sure will prove an inspiration to the classes I
leave in his charge. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your communication of
the 13th, inst., requesting a leave of absence from the University
for the remainder of the present session, and stating
that you have secured the consent of Dr. George A. Wauchope
to serve in your stead. I am enclosing a correspondence between
Dr. Kent and myself which explains itself. I am sending the
correspondence to you with the request that you signify your
approval or disapproval of the request contained in Dr. Kent's
letter and approved by me, in order that I may inform Dr. Kent
and officially inform Dr. Wauchope. There is no question of
money involved in the transaction,- - that is to say, Dr.
Kent's salary will go on, and he will compensate Dr. Wauchope
for his services out of his (Dr. Kent's) salary, the University
budget arrangement remaining undisturbed. The essential
point, of course, is the essential fitness of Dr. Wauchope.
He is, from all accounts, a very valuable and interesting man.
His services will be from February until June, and I do not
believe any harm will come to the character of our teaching,
and some good from the interchange. I believe much good will
come to the Department from Dr. Kent's residence in Europe for
this period. It is a sort of Sabbatical year arrangement,
without cost to the Institution, that I heartily approve of. Upon application of Dr. Charles W. Kent, I have recommended
to the Rector and Visitors of the University that he
be given a vacation for the remainder of the session. As
you are aware, it is his purpose to spend this vacation
abroad. Dr. Kent, in making the application to me, recommended
most enthusiastically your name as a suitable incumbent
for the Chair for the remainder of the session of 1910. I have to report that about 12:30 o'clock on the morning
of the 8th of February, fire was discovered in the basement
of the Chapel. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 235 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1910) May 6, 1910 | | | | Published: | 1910 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At the annual meeting of the Board of Visitors of the
University of Virginia, on May 6th, in the President's Office, The undersigned respectfully reports that pursuant to the
resolution of the Visitors at the June meeting, 1909, providing
for the transfer to the Alumni Board of Trustees of the University
of Virginia Endowment Fund, as in said resolution set
forth, on March 30, 1910, after having had a previous meeting
with Mr. Eppa Hunton, Jr., the Treasurer of said Alumni Board
of Trustees in Richmond, in order to arrange the various details
for the proper transfer of those of said securities which
were registered, the undersigned receipted to the Virginia Trust
Company for the following named and described bonds, and turned
the same over to said Hunton as Treasurer of said Alumni Board
of Trustees of the University of Virginia Endowment Fund taking
his receipts therefor in the words and figures following: viz.- Received of the Rector and Visitors of the University of
Virginia through the Honorable Armistead C. Gordon, Rector,
the bond with all unmatured coupons thereto attached. Received of the Rector and Visitors of the University of
Virginia, through the Honorable Armistead C. Gordon, Rector
all of the above listed securities with all of the unmatured
coupons thereto attached. The Executive Committee of the local chapter of Phi Beta
Kappa requests that, unless you yourself see some reason for
not doing so, you will submit to the Board of Visitors, their
request that the Chapter be granted the use of one of the rooms
of the University, and would suggest as suitable for the purpose,
the unoccupied room on East Range in the building in which
Dr. B. W. Green now resides. We desire this room to keep in it
the records, library, photographs, and other property of the
Chapter, and for the use of the officers of the Chapter in the
discharge of their duties. I enclose herewith a formal contract prepared by Messrs.
Moon and Fife, relative to the removal of the track, &c., by
the Street Car Company. It has been executed by the Company,
and I have signed it as Chairman of the Executive Committee.
When this Company began the work, I was under the impression
that the Committee, composed of yourself, Dr. Lambeth, and
myself, had power to act in the matter; but it seems that the
power was vested in you gentlemen and the Executive Committee.
I will be glad if you will have this paper properly executed
at the meeting of the Board called for Saturday. I regret to
say it will be impossible for me to attend the meeting, as I
shall be out of town. On the 10th day of April 1908, the Board of Visitors of
the University of Virginia adopted a resolution that the petition
of the Charlottesville and Albemarle Railway Company
for change of the location of its line be referred to you
gentlemen with authority to act. I enclose herewith a paper from Mr. L. T. Hanckel, President
of the Street Railway Company, making application for
permission to change the location and grade of the street-car
track as it passes over the lands of the University. The undersigned respectfully requests your honorable
body to permit it to change the location of its Street Car
Line running through the premises of the University of Virginia.
It is desired to change the location of its railway
line from its present one to a point lying north of the trestle
and south of the light and heating plant of the University
of Virginia,- the new line to be located at such point and
along such curves and grades as will be agreeable to and approved
by your body. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 236 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1910) November 18, 1910 | | | | Published: | 1910 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At a called meeting of the Board of Visitors, of
the University of Virginia, at 2:30 P. M., on above date,
in the office of the President, East Lawn. I received a copy of passages from the Records of
the University of Virginia, having to do with the establishment,
of the University Observatory by Mr. Leander McCormick and the
endowment of the professorship and working fund in connection
therewith. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your communication
of June 11th, containing a presentation of the conditions
under which the McCormick Observatory was established at the
University of Virginia, and making certain suggestions as to
the future use of the observatory and the future conduct
of the astronomical work at the University. I had hoped
to be able to present that matter to the Board at their
June meeting, but by reason of circumstances beyond my control,
that meeting was not held, and it is not possible
to bring the matter before them before the early fall.
Your letter and all the facts must be brought before them and
a clear decision reached. The great majority of the Board
are men who have taken up service on the Board since these
matters were handled, and it will be necessary for them to
go back over the records and make a study of the situation
themselves. I wish to acknowledge receipt of your letter of
June 20th which has been forwarded to me. Please accept thanks for yours of the
3d. According to the records of the Board of Visitors of the
University, the duties of the Professor of Astronomy were to
be two-fold: 1st. To teach theoretical and practical astronomy:
2nd. To spend any remaining time in the use of the telescope. Enclosed please find a copy of the above mentioned
trust, the original of which is recorded and filed in the
clerk's office of the Albemarle Co., court, also an order
on the Albemarle Nat. Bank for the two bonds mentioned in
said document, the interest from which is to be devoted to
the scholarship. I have the honor to report that at their meeting of Nov. 7
last, the Academic Faculty approved the attached outline of a
proposal course in Public Speaking. By resolution the Faculty
recommended that the proposed course be approved by the
President and Visitors and the the course be given
the value of one elective at large, when offered for the
Baccalaureate Degree. The Charlottesville and Albemarle Railway
Company of Charlottesville, Virginia, a corporation
duly chartered under the laws of the State of Virginia, respectfully
requests that your Honorable Board will grant
it the right to locate and operate an electric railway line
upon and through the property of the University of Virginia,
along the terrace West of what is known as "Rugby Road", and
between said Road and the walk immediately East of the Fayerweather
Gymnasium. Said line to begin at the Ivy Turnpike
Road, and run in a North-westerly direction to the C. & O.
Railway overhead bridge on the Rugby Road: said line to be
located and constructed under the general supervision and
direction of the President and the Superintendent of Grounds
and Buildings of the University of Virginia, and the Chairman
of the Executive Committee of your Board; and that an order
be entered on the minutes of your Board authorizing the said
line to be located on an through the property of the University
of Virginia, subject to the aforesaid provision. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 237 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1911) May 9, 1911 | | | | Published: | 1911 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At the annual meeting of the Board of Visitors, called
for the consideration of the "Financial Budget" for 1911-1912, I hereby tender to you and through you to the
Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, my resignation
as Professor of Secondary Education, and as Professor of
Psychology, and as Director of the Summer School at the
University of Virginia. I should like for this resignation
to take effect at the end of the scholastic year, June 14,
1911. I think it advisable to continue my connection with
the Summer School until its close, July 29th, and with respect
to that phase of my work this resignation should not become
operative until July 29th. It may be that I cannot be present
every day during the Summer School, but if agreeable
I shall be present as often as possible. By the Eleventh Article of his last will and Testament
the Hon. Lambert Tree, Deceased, of this city, bequeathed to
your institution the sum of $5,000.00 to be invested in
perpetuity for the benefit of your library. To be used in
the purchase of books, or such other ways as may be deemed
best for said library. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your communication
of the 29th, inst., containing a check for $4,854.61, being
the bequest of the Hon. Lambert Tree, deceased, to the University
of Virginia, less the inheritance tax of the State of Illinois
of $145.39. I also acknowledge receipt of the copy of article
XI of the will of Lambert Tree, deceased, setting forth
the purpose for which this bequest shall be used. The
University of Virginia will in due time express proper
gratitude through its Rector and Visitors for this bequest. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 238 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1911) May 30, 1911 | | | | Published: | 1911 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At a called meeting of the Board of Visitors of the
University of Virginia on above date in the Presidents'
Office. The following statement was presented by the President,
and ordered to be placed on record as follows: I beg to submit to you the following reports from
the Faculty of the Department of Graduate Studies of the
University of Virginia and the Faculty of the College of the
University of Virginia, the two comprising the Academic
Department of the Institution. I submit these reports
with my entire approval and endorsement. They are the
result of patient study of specially appointed committees
of these faculties extending over a period of two years.
They have been carefully considered and discussed by the
Faculties themselves in utmost detail. In some cases they
have been held up for months with a view of obtaining the
best information on all subjects connected with the curriculum
and the methods of teaching in modern colleges. They
have passed the Facilties of the Department of Graduate
Studies and of the College with practical unanimity. The
report of the Faculty of the Graduate Department is unanimous,
and the report from the Faculty of the College
comes to you with only one dissenting vote. The fundamental
purpose in these proposed modifications is to increase the
power, to elevate the standards, and to place on a surer
pedagogic basis all instruction given at the University of
Virginia. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 239 | Author: | University of Virginia
Board of Visitors | Add | | | Title: | Board of Visitors minutes (1911) November 14, 1911 | | | | Published: | 1911 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia::Board of Visitors | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | At a meeting of the Board of Visitors on above dates
in the office of the President, East Lawn, I have the honor to inform you that
I have accepted a position as research Chemist with the
Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, and I herewith
hand you my resignation as Professor of Chemistry, in
the University of Virginia, to take effect at the beginning
of the next collegiate year. I beg to acknowledge with very
profound and sincere regret your communication of the 19th,
inst., tendering your resignation as Professor of Chemistry,
in the University of Virginia. I wish for you in your new
position as research chemist with the Kentucky Agricultural
Experiment Station every opportunity for the advancement of
your chosen field of work. You have served this University,
permit me to say, with ability and distinction during your
brief period of work here. You have made friends of your
colleagues and friends of your pupils, and all of us feel,
no one more than myself, that in losing you we are sustaining
a genuine loss both in the direction of scientific power
and personality. I appreciate the motives that have moved
you to this decision, and while I deeply regret that the
result is your separation from the work here, I can only
wish for you in this new field the abundant measure of
success you have achieved here. The trustees of the Peabody Education
Fund at a meeting held in New York on November 1, (1911)
adopted the following: The University of Virginia will undertake to
maintain a Department of Education upon which not less
than $10,000.00 a year will be expended for maintenance
per annum, provided the Peabody Education Fund will donate
the sum of $40,000.00 to the Rector and Visitors of the
University for the purpose of erecting a suitable building
for the home of this department. The University already
has in hand funds amounting to $7,000.00 a year that could
be used legitimately for this purpose. It would be necessary
for it, in order to carry out this proposition, to increase
this amount by the sum of $3,000.00. This it hopes to
be able to do in the next six months. It is, therefore,
suggested that that amount of time, at least, be allowed
the University of Virginia in which to meet the conditions
of this proposition. I have the honor to inform
you that the Executive Committee of the Foundation
at its meeting on June 8 voted to admit the University
of Virginia to the list of accepted institutions of
the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. I beg to acknowledge with very
great pleasure and satisfaction the receipt of your communication
of June 9th, wherein you inform me that the Executive
Committee of the Foundation at its meeting on June 8th, voted
to admit the University of Virginia to the list of accepted
Institutions of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching. I am gratified at this action of the Foundation,
not solely because it secures against want the old age of
men who have given their lives to an unlucrative but noble
profession, but in a higher sense because such action signalizes
the accomplishment by this University of a great undertaking
which it set out to bring to pass nearly seven years ago.
It now occupies a consistent and logical relation to the system
of secondary education with which it is allied, and it has also
concluded legislation by which it occupies consistent and logical
relation in its graduate school, to the college and higher institutions.
Such action of the Foundation is an added testimony
to the fact that standards of admission established have been
administered with integrity and good sense. I wish to express
to the Foundation assurances of our belief that the Foundation
has helped powerfully in enabling this University, and other
Universities in this country to establish and maintain such
standards as to unify the whole educational process. I too
hope that the relations between the Foundation and the University
may be one of material help and service in all educational development. We are forwarding to you today via Adams Express
thirty notes of $1,000.00 each, made by J. W. Hough and
Abner S. Pope, payable to the Rector and Visitors of the
University of Virginia. All of these notes bear interest
from Jan. 1, 1911 to Jan. 1, 1913, at the rate of three
per cent per annum, and after that date, at the rate of
six per cent per annum. The notes are as follows: I am very anxious to get your
advice and co-Operation in connection with the expenditure
of the income of the Phelps-Stokes Fund of which I am one
of the Trustees. This Fund, which amounts to about a million
dollars, was left by my Aunt, Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes,
with the understanding that the income should be used for
various educational purposes, but more particularly for advancing
the cause of negro education in the South. I have
had several conferences with out mutual friend, Dr. Dillard,
and I wish your specific opinion regarding the plan that we
have had under favorable discussion for creating fellowships,
endowed we will say at $10,000. each, at two or three
representative state universities in the South, such as the
University of Virginia, and the University of Georgia. The
Fellowship to be awarded by the proper university authorities
to graduate students whose time would be devoted to studies
on some phase of the negro problem. The administration of
the Fund, the selection of incumbents, etc., to be entirely
in the hands of the University authorities. I was greatly interested to have your
letter of the 29th, ult., and have been giving the matter
of your suggestion very grave thought. I have felt for
many years that a fundamental thing to do in this tangled
problem is to cause it to be scientifically approached by the
scholarship of the South. The thing to do is to take it out
of the nervous system of our people and their emotions and to
get it set up before them as a great human problem, economic
in nature, scientific in character, to be acted upon as the
result of broad, wise, sympathetic study. The time ought to
come when our best scholars will take pride in making contributions,
however minute, toward the handling of the great
question. I have no doubt that an endowed foundation of the
character suggested by you would be most acceptable to the
authorities of this University. I am a bit troubled about
just the right suggestion to make to you in regard to your
definite proposition for the creating of fellowships endowed at
approximately $10,000, and having for their primary purpose the
securing ultimately of a small group of trained men who shall giv
their life to the study and improvement of the negro conditions.
Let me explain a bit. I established here, at
Tulane University, and at the University of North Carolina
the first Professorship of Economics: Sociological subjects
were not being taught in Southern institutions. Even
Political Science, as a scientific subject, has no independent
status. We now have a very strong department of Economics,
and temporarily, a very able lecturer in Political Science.
Our full Professor of Economics, as you may know, is on the
Tariff Board, and his place is supplied by a veryable
fellow from Wisconsin. We have two full professors in the
Department of Education, and these departments make it a
point to emphasize the sociological aspects of education.
There is, however, no Professor of Sociology. It, of course,
is as yet an undefined and somewhat empiric science, but
there is a tremendous current of interest among our men in
the big questions affecting social betterment, the improvement
of rural life, the imporvement of industrial life, the better
governing of cities, questions of public health and sanitation,
and foremost among them, supreme in its importance, stands,
of course, the negro problem with all of its implications.
The ideal need here is a professorship in that great field,
giving to the negro problem its right place as the chief
subject of scientific study by our analytic minded scholars.
This, of course, means a good deal of money. The next in
order would be, it seems to me, a lectureship demanding much
less money, but devoted almost exclusively to the study of
the negro problem and the social betterment question, to
giving information to the young men, to giving the proper
bent to their minds, to stimulating their interest, to
developing in them right methods of approach to such a subject.
It seems to me such a lectureship logically precedes
the establishment of a fellowship. Out of such lectureship and
its activities would come such interest as to arouse young
men inside or outside of the University to strive for a prize to
be offered by us in the form of a fellowship or scholarship. W
the sum you mentioned, $500.00 a year would be yielded as
income. If $400.00 of this could be given to a man who would
come here and make, say, a dozen lectures and meet men in semina
ways; and then, if $100.00 could be made as a prize for the
best bit of research work in small fields at first-I mean small
as to area-the matter could get itself tried out, though on somewhat
too meager a basis. I hesitate for a moment, though I hate
to seem to hesitate a second in such a matter to establish an
independent Fellowship in such a subject when there is back of
it no clear instruction or stimulation in the great field which
the Fellowship would cover. My fear about it is simply that
the work itself would not get justice. The work would not yield
its best results. You may be sure I want this opportunity here.
Would it be possible to consider the proposition to increase the
sume just a bit so as to make the Lectureship and the Fellowship
co-existent? If such could be done it seems to me a new era
would be brought about in our best institutions in their
attitude toward this matter. Last year one of our professors
gave a course of talks on the negro, based on Weatherford's
book. It was astonishing the interest taken in the matter,
the book being used as a text-book. I heartily wish I could
talk with you about this matter, or with my friend,
Dillard. Instruction in such a matter is not only not
unwise, but most needed and would be welcome. I would
never want to see such a fellowship established here, unless
I saw fruitful results issuing out of it. I do not want it
to become a mere academic thing that in time would lose
its edge and become a mere formal prize. I hope you will
not reach any definite conclusion in the matter until in
some way we can talk it out, for it is a big question and
incapable of just solution by interchange of letters. I have the honor to inform you that at a meeting
of the Trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund held at the office
of Anson Phelps Stokes, 100 William St., New York City,
Wednesday, November 15, 1911, the following vote was passed: | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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