UCCSN Board of Regents' Meeting Minutes
03-13-1909
Volume OD - Pages 104-109
Reno, Nevada
March 13, 1909
The Board of Regents met at 9:30 A.M. Saturday, March 13, 1909,
all members of the Board and the President of the University
being present.
The minutes of the meeting held Saturday, January 30, 1909,
were read and approved. Also the minutes of the meeting held
on February 27, 1909, were read and approved.
The President submitted his report as follows:
To the Honorable the Board of Regents
of the University of Nevada
Gentlemen:
Although nearly two weeks have elapsed since the Investigating
Committee requested by the Board of Regents finished their work,
they have not yet made any report of their findings. I am very
sure that so far as the purpose of their investigation was con-
cerned, they have found that everything was all right on the
part of the Regents and the Administration.
What is the power and the scope which an investigating Committee
has? I imagine that they are going on to make recommendations --
probably recommendations that we would favor, but I do not know.
I wonder if such a Committee has any such power.
I received a letter from Mr. Pritchett, President of the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, under date of March
6, 1909, which I will read to you. It is a very important letter
in several ways. Recently I have had to consider the question
of what employment for pay the teaching staff of this University
can accept consistently with their duties as Professors of the
University. This question applies not only to the teaching staff
but also to the Experiment Station workers. I have proposed
several questions to the Academic Council and High School faculty
which they will discuss during the coming week, because I wish
to gain their point of view very completely before presenting the
matter to the Board of Regents. The following are the questions
which they are going to discuss during the coming week:
1. What principle shall the University observe in allowing the
teaching staff to engage in work other than their teaching
duties for pay? Five minute addresses to be led by Profes-
sors Kennedy and Scrugham.
2. Shall we require at least one modern language other than
English for entrance to the Engineering Schools? To be
opened by Professors de Laguna and Young.
3. Shall the High School adopt the hour plan of recitation or
45 minute period? Opened by Principal Howe and Professor
Minor.
4. How many courses of study shall we have in the High School?
Opened by Professors Thompson and Frandsen.
The letter from President Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching is as follows:
The Carnegie Foundation
For the Advancement of Teaching
March 6, 1909
Dear President Stubbs:
The Third Annual Report of the President of the Carnegie Founda-
tion for the Advancement of Teaching has just been sent to you.
I desire to call your attention particularly to the discussion
(pages 64-73) entitled, "Administration of the Retiring Allow-
ance System in Tax-Supported Institutions". I earnestly desire
that the position of the Foundation as here set forth, be fully
appreciated by the State Institutions, and that no hasty action
be taken on their part in the matter of elevating their entrance
requirements with a view to formal compliance with the condi-
tions laid down by the Foundation.
This stipulation of 14 units is based on the theory that the
four year public high school, under existing conditions, ought to
be the basis of the American College, and that any other second-
ary school whose students are eligible to College privileges and
opportunities must have enjoyed both quantitatively and qualita-
tively, the amount of training indicated. The secondary school
development of many states already warrants the exaction of such
entrance requirements on the part of their State Universities;
in some other states it can be reached presently. But there re-
main not a few in which conditions are such that there is no im-
mediate possibility of their actually attaining this standard,
or of fixing the date when it may be so attained.
I desire to impress upon these last named Institutions the neces-
sity for proceeding with great circumspection. The Foundation
conceives it to be the function of the State University to safe-
guard the development of the State School System. It holds its
relations to be vital, wholesome and binding; it believes that
a premature effort to proclaim a standard which the public high
schools cannot effectively achieve will flood the University
with hastily and superficially taught students, or by tending
to divorce the State University from the State School System,
deal a heavy blow to the progressive and orderly evolution of
the school system of the commonwealth. The urgent demand for
high schools in sections but recently unprovided with them in-
volves conditions which the State Universities must not aggra-
vate by too quickly increasing their own requirements. Under
such pressure, the type of high school most readily and most
economically started is the didactic literary school. This is
inevitable, pending the development of a body of more variously
and of more flexibly trained teachers. But it is unwise to com-
pel these schools to concentrate all their energies now and for
years to come along narrow lines in the effort thus to make up
the relatively high total of required units when, but for this
pressure, something might be done to develop more modern lines
of teaching. In this matter the State University is bound to
take a more comprehensive view than the endowed College; and
while the latter may depend on and develop its own conventional
fitting schools, if it so pleases, the State University does
unwisely to the extent that it forces the high school to conform
to a mere preparatory drill.
It is also at least questionable whether State Universities can
afford to set up a standard that the high schools cannot reach,
and then attempt to bridge the chasm by the creation of a sub-
Freshman class. It would appear that such a class might oper-
ate to retard the general high school development by making it
possible to urge the minority, who need more instruction than
the existing high schools give, readily get it in the sub-
Freshman class of the State University.
The Foundation, in passing on all applications to be admitted
to the accepted list, whether from endowed or tax-supported
Institutions, goes beyond the formal statement of present and
entrance requirements in order to ascertain, first, whether
the schools whose students are admitted either by examination
or on certificate, are in reality giving, and are manned and
equipped to give, the education which the College standard al-
ready adopted is designed to secure. It is clear that some
Institutions have acted somewhat prematurely in endeavoring to
set up standards which they cannot enforce except by an over-
valuation in the acceptance of hurried and superficial secondary
school work. It is important to understand in advance that the
Foundation will reject, as foreign to its spirit and purpose,
such nominal compliance with its standards.
I wish to add that it is a matter of relatively little importance
to any Institution whether it comes upon the list of accepted
Universities and Colleges this year, or some years hence, pro-
vided sincere and intelligent effort is being made to develop
the whole system of instruction in the state. During such an
interval of constructive work, the Foundation will be ready to
deal fairly and generously in these Institutions with individ-
ual teachers whose services would, under the regular rules,
entitle them to retiring allowances. The Foundation finds itself
confronted at this time with the requests of a large number of
State Institutions for admission. To examine the academic stand-
ards and organization of these Institutions with care is a matter
requiring time and labor. To admit Colleges and Universities
without such scrutiny is to throw away the very opportunity for
education which the Foundation hopes to use. I beg, therefore,
the patience of all University and College authorities in the
execution of this work and their cooperation in securing a fruit-
ful and helpful result, assuring them at the same time of the
sympathetic attitude of the Foundation in dealing with the in-
dividual teacher.
I am,
Most sincerely yours,
/s/ Henry S. Pritchett
President Joseph E. Stubbs
University of Nevada
Reno, Nevada
The Legislature will adjourn, I presume, next week and we will
know the result of our bills and appropriations. So far as I am
informed (not having been to Carson), the bill for the annex to
Manzanita Hall and the bill for the purchase of the land has been
passed by both houses and is in the hands of the Governor. The
bill relating to the approval of the Carnegie Foundation has been
passed unanimously by the House and the Senate, and has been, I
presume, signed by the Governor. The deficiency bill and the
bill allowing for putting heating pipes across the Campus, the
sewer, etc., have also been reported favorably and passed by one
house and will unquestionably be passed by the other. The bill
for the Biological building has been deferred, awaiting the re-
port of the Investigating Committee, I take it. I have heard
nothing respecting the General Appropriation Bill, but I presume
they are going to give us the amount asked for, including the
heating plant and the greenhouse.
I have allowed many of the claims that have accrued on this year
for approval by the Board of Regents. I will read a list of
these salaries and claims so that you may know what they are be-
fore you sign them.
I remain,
Very respectfully yours,
/s/ J. E. Stubbs
President
State Funds, March 13, 1909
February Payroll $2837.71
February Payroll - Students 297.70
Shepherd & Son 6.00
J. F. Price 6.00
George Fellows 10.00
Army and Navy Magazine 48.00
Nevada State Journal 70.20
Nevada Forum 6.25
J. E. Stubbs 15.15
Rev. C. R. Brown 66.00
W. F. Doherty 12.50
Orr Ditch Company 0.00
Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. 10.50
Western Union Telegraph Company 12.34
Menardi Stationery Company 3.00
Reno Printing Company 2.75
Rand, Mc Nally and Company 32.00
Rand, Mc Nally and Company 16.71
Reno Evening Gazette 126.00
Reno Evening Gazette 26.80
Reno Power Light & Water Co. 159.15
A. C. Mc Clury 15.42
A. C. Mc Clury 3.95
Reno Mill & Lumber Co. .75
W. R. Jenkins 4.88
John Evans 40.10
Reno Mercantile Co. 17.31
E. Gibeau 18.55
Central Coal & Coke Co. 191.25
C. O. D. Wood & Coal Co. Order 16 229.41
Mining & Scientific Press 1.50
Frank Williams 69.05
John Sullivan 62.00
A. A. Codd 134.35
C. B. Henderson 77.45
A. M. Robertson 17.60
University of Chicago Press 172.55
University of Chicago Press 199.95
Northwestern Con. Co. (Ins) 579.86
Scheeline Banking Company 45.00
Washoe County Bank 135.00
Bank of Nevada 306.00
Continental Insurance Co. 50.00
Welsh & Chadwick 250.00
Nevada State Agricultural Association 450.00
C. O. D. Wood & Coal Company 402.00
G. H. Taylor (Express, Freight, etc.) 552.22
Frank Williams 103.95
Total $7552.01
A & M Claims, March 13, 1909
Braun-Knecht-Heimann $ 29.96
William Guild & Co. 8.75
Eimer & Amend 3.75
Bausch & Lomb 51.81
Nevada Hardware & Supply Co. 18.35
Reno Mill & Lumber Co. 25.50
G. E. Stechert Co. 19.00
G. E. Stechert Co. 8.19
Sol Levy 1.15
Sol Levy 1.95
Nevada Engineering Works 37.75
F. W. Cook 2.90
Nevada Hardware & Supply Co. 4.20
Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. 5.26
C. C. Morse 2.55
Nevada Engineering Works 2.55
A. C. Gough 38.50
Eugene Dietzgen & Co. 24.43
Union Lumber Co. 6.10
The Century Co. 1.25
H. S. Crocker Co. 16.50
Nevada Hardware & Supply Co. 57.90
Edward Schmitt 3.50
E. C. Stewart 94.62
Nevada Forum 15.75
Geo. H. Taylor for Lulu Pierce 35.35
Oxford University Press 21.12
Riverside Studio 7.50
Braun-Knect-Heimann 6.25
Nevada Engineering Works 12.50
Union Lumber Co. 7.00
Daniels & Steinmetz 66.15
H. C. Poole for W. Bidwell 4.00
Reno Mercantile Co. 3.12
Flaherty & Bates 1.50
Reno Power Light & Water Co. 5.25
Reno Power Light & Water Co. 6.00
Pioneer Iron Works 8.25
W. L. Williams 2.20
Nevada Machinery & Supply Co. 51.09
H. W. Wilson Co. 2.50
Reno Power Light & Water Co. 75.00
Reno Power Light & Water Co. 167.95
Nevada Hardware & Supply Co. 2.50
Nevada Hardware & Supply Co. 32.45
Nevada Hardware & Supply Co. 73.57
Geo. H. Taylor (Freight, etc.) 22.05
February Payroll 2111.21
Total $3206.68
(See minutes of July 3, 1909 for Trial Balances of State Funds
and of A & M Funds taken March 31, 1909.)
Regent Codd moved, seconded by Regent Sullivan, that any or all
members of the Board go to Carson in the interest of any matters
relating to the University before the Legislature and their ex-
penses be paid from the University funds.
Adjourned to meet on Saturday, April 17, 1909.
John Sunderland
Chairman
Geo. H. Taylor
Secretary