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HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

The University of Illinois had its real beginning in the Morill
land grant act of 1862, by which the national government donated
to each state public land scrip, in quantity equal to 30,000 acres
for each senator and representative in Congress, for the endowment,
support and maintenance of at least one college. This provided
for the principal part of the financial problem, but not for the loca-
tion. The location was decided upon by a competition, into which
several counties entered. Each county proposed to donate specified
sums of money or their equivalent for the use of the University—
Champaign county offered the most satisfactory inducements and on
February 2 8 , 1867 the institution was incorporated at Urbana under
the name of the Illinois Industrial University.

I t was placed under the control of a Board of Trustees, and on
March 2, 1868, the University was opened. The faculty consisted
of the Regent and three professors, and the student enrollment was
about fifty. Work on the farm and gardens, or about the University
was at first compulsory to all students.

Soon laboratories of various kinds were started and new courses
offered.

A most important step toward advancement was made on March
9, 1870, when the Trustees voted to admit women as students. The
following year twenty-four availed themselves of the privilege, and
since that time they have constituted a very important one sixth to
one fifth of the total number of students.

Not until 1877 did the legislature give the University authority
to confer degrees and issue diplomas. I n 1885 the General Assem-
bly changed the name of the institution from the Illinois Industrial
University to the University of Illinois.

As each year closed the University records showed remarkable
advancement. State laboratories, experiment stations and surveys
were gradually established. The Graduate School, the Library
School, the schools of music, education, railway engineering, ad-
ministration, military science, and physical training all were organ-
ized with a separate faculty, aside from the Colleges of Literature
and Arts. Science, Engineering, Agriculture, Law, Medicine, Den-
tistry, and Pharmacy.

The enrollment of the University of Illinois now is over five
thousand, with an instruction corps of about six hundred.

ANNETTA STEPHENS, '10.