March 4-5, 1907
03-04-1907
Volume OC - Pages 445-450
Reno, Nevada
March 4, 1907
Special meeting of the Board of Regents was held at the Office
of the Chairman of the Board, at 2:00 P.M., March 4, 1907.
Present Regents Smith, Sunderland and Souchereau. Absent
Regents Lewers and Henderson.
Motion of John Sunderland, seconded by J. E. Souchereau, the
President of the University was authorized to prepare a bill for
the Legislature authorizing the Regents to sell the present Ex-
periment Station Farm, and the purchase of other lands instead.
The President of the University was also authorized to prepare
a bill granting the assent of the State to accept the Adams Fund
appropriation from the U. S. Government.
The report of the President of the University on his eastern trip
was submitted and ordered to be copied in the minutes.
March 4, 1907
To the Honorable
The Board of Regents
of the University of Nevada
Sirs:
I have the honor to make the following report of things done, and
things to be done, during my trip, covering the time from Janu-
ary the 17th to March the 3rd, 1907.
This trip to Chicago, New York, New Haven, Philadelphia and Wash-
ington was taken by official order of the Board of Regents.
The report is intended to give briefly and accurately the several
persons herewith mentioned, who have manufactured considerable
interest in the University, which you have the honor as a Board
of Regents to direct and control.
I. Mr. F. M. Smith has given to the University this year the
sum of One Thousand dollars to assist students in the
Mining School. I had an interview with Mr. C. B.
Zabriskie, who assured me that this amount of One Thousand
dollars would be continued an indefinite number of years
for the same purposes to which it is now devoted. Mr.
Zabriskie also advised me to see Mr. Smith upon his re-
turn to California in April and suggest the plan of a new
building for the University to be given by Mr. Smith and
to be named after him.
II. In Washington, I had two interviews on different days with
Senator George S. Nixon, regarding his proposition to se-
cure gifts of a considerable amount of money to the Uni-
versity. He authorized me to say to the Regents that as
soon as in his judgment the time was ripe, he would take
the responsibility for the University from the men who
have made their money in Nevada, a sum of money that would
aid the University in carrying out the larger ideas in
regard to its teaching force, its equipment, its buildings
and its grounds. Just in what special Department of the
University this money shall be applied, he will leave to
the Regents and the faculty largely to determine.
III. I am not permitted to say to the Regents just now what was
said by Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. I asked his permission to
state what he said to me to the Board of Regents, but he
requested that I should not do it just at the present. I
called his attention to several items of importance and he
has taken these suggestions under advisement and will give
us an answer possibly within two months.
IV. I spent most of two days at Yale University. I called on
President Hadley and later on Professor A. H. Cook, one
of the Professors of English, and talked with them about
the type of man we wanted for the English Department of
the University. The conference between us was very satis-
factory, and he said he would do all in his power to as-
sist us in getting the right man for the place. I was
shown through the Mining Laboratory by Professor Huntoon,
who has charge of the Department. A School of Mines has
been established at Yale within the last two years, and
the Mining Laboratory is the gift of John Hays Hammond.
It is a very commodius building of brick and stone simi-
lar to the Mackay building. The course of study is real-
ly five years in length, three years for the Sheffield
Scientific School and two years for the Mining and Metal-
lurgical course. I was impressed with the substantial
character of the buildings, both at Columbia and Yale.
The buildings are very generally of stone and brick and
the inside finish of the buildings is generally of Oak
or Maple. I have brought with me a plan of the cabinets
for specimens of ore which is the best thing I have seen.
V. I spent one day at Teachers' College, making a study of
the Physical Education Department, the Horace Mann High
School and the several Departments devoted to technical
and Engineering training.
VI. I spent one day in New York with the Secretary of the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. As
the Board of Regents doubtless knows, Mr. Carnegie has
established this foundation with a fund of Ten Million
dollars, the proceeds of which are to be used as pensions
for Teachers of Colleges and Universities. Mr. Carnegie
excluded members of Universities which were governed by
sectarian boards. He did not include State Universities
nor did he exclude them, but left the question to be de-
cided by the Governing Board of the Foundation. I sought
to show the Secretary in this conversation that it was
very doubtful whether any Legislatures of any State would
make an appropriation to pension the Professors, who, by
reason of old age or by reason of failing health, were
unable to continue teaching. Of one thing I was quite
sure, and that is that the Universities in the smaller
States, such as Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming,
New Mexico and Arizona, would not do so. At the Secre-
tary's request, I am to present to the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching, these reasons in a more
formal manner.
I am of the opinion that the action of the Trustees of the
Foundation will result in including State Universities
within the plan of pensions. I want to call the attention
of the Board of Regents to one case which I think may well
be put under this plan and application made for a pension
from the Foundation. I refer to Professor Thomas W.
Cowgill, Professor Emeritus of English at the University
of Nevada, who has been an invalid for seven years. I
know of no case that should appeal to the Carnegie Founda-
tion for the Advancement of Teaching more successfully
than this one, and I suggest that a resolution be adopted
by the Board of Regents, recommending Professor Cowgill
for a pension of One Thousand dollars a year from this
Foundation, and that in due time, I will take steps to
present his case very fully to the Trustees of the
Foundation.
VII. I also called at the Office of the General Board of Edu-
cation which has recently received the gift of Thirty-Two
Millions of dollars from Mr. John D. Rockefeller. None of
this money goes to State Universities, but is to be de-
voted to the education of women and men, particularly in
the South, and in the East and Middle West. Nevertheless,
I am persuaded that some part of Mr. Rockefeller's bene-
faction might come to the University of Nevada after a
little while, if the Board of Regents should deem a gift
from him as one that would be welcomed by the Regents
and by the State. Mr. Gates of 26 Broadway is the Chief
Advisor in the distribution of these funds.
VIII. Mrs. Stubbs and I visited Mr. Borglum's studio on the
22nd, and had an opportunity to study the statue of John
W. Mackay. The work impressed us as a masterpiece, show-
ing Mackay in the garb of a Virginia miner just at the
moment when, with a specimen of ore in his left hand, he
lifts his eyes toward the horizon as though in a vision
he saw the opportunity of doing great good to his time
and to his kind.
This statue is completed and ready to be sent to Reno
to the University whenver the building is far enough to
place the statue in position ready for unveiling.
Very respectfully yours,
President Stubbs
No further business, the meeting adjourned to meet at the call
of the Chairman.
Oscar J. Smith
Chairman
Geo. H. Taylor
Secretary
03/04/1907
