UNIVERSITY RECORD VICTOR H. HENDERSON On January 8, 1916, died Eugene Woldemar Hilgard, since 1905 Professor of Agriculture, Emeritus, and for thirty-one years before that head of the Department of Agriculture, as Professor, Dean of the College of Agriculture, and Director of the United States Agricultural Experiment Station. Creative-minded, he had not only laid foundations for soil geology, soil chemistry, and soil physics, but he had developed the fecundating idea of making the University contribute to the everyday happiness and well-being of all mankind. Of rich culture, of kindly soul, of noble ideals of service to mankind, his career is a precious part of the spiritual endowment of the University. An account of his life-work is printed in other pages of this number of the University Chronicle. DEATH OF JOHN M. ESHLEMAN Regent John Morton Eshleman, '02, one of the most distinguished graduates of the University of California, died on February 28. With a father who for the last five years of his life was bedridden, as the eventual result of injuries received during the Civil War, his childhood was one of privation and hunger. After but a single year in the high school, he taught himself the Greek, Latin, and mathematics he needed for admission to the University by studying at night after a hard day's work as helper to a Chinese cook on a Southern Pacific work-car. He worked his way through the University, was President of the Associated Students, achieved Phi Beta Kappa, was an effective member of many societies, and a leader in everything that was good in student life. Throughout his University course he continued the study of Greek, Latin, mathematics, and philosophy, then returned for a graduate year, as LeConte Fellow, devoted to studying philosophy and serving as assistant in English. To make himself more serviceable in the first position which he held after leaving the University-assistant in the State Bureau of Labor Statistics—he obtained admission to the bar, and in the courts established the validity of the child-labor law. He went to the Legislature, introduced an anti-racetrack law-then regarded by most people as about the most fatal step one desirous of a political career could make-and after a complete physical breakdown from tuberculosis, left Sacramento to go to the desert. There, against all the possibilities, his faithful wife nursed him back to life. He took up the practice of the law, served as District Attorney of the new Imperial County, became State Railroad Commissioner, and as president of that Commission did an extraordinary work of constructive statesmanship which gave him national reputation and laid the people of California under the profoundest debt of gratitude. Having established firmly his new policies of regulation of public utilities in the interest of the public welfare and with honest justice to private right as well, and having obtained from the people approval of constitutional amendments enormously increasing the public powers of the Railroad Commission over corporate enterprises, Mr. Eshleman then retired from the presidency of the Railroad Commission and became lieutenant-governor of California, which made him a regent of the University ex officio. A journey to Washington with the purpose of obtaining just dealing from Congress for the oil industry of California proved too great a tax upon his powers of physical resistance, through many years unselfishly sacrificed in the service of the people of California, and death resulted, on his way to the desert which once before had given him back his life. As noble example of University opportunities used to the full, of personal culture ardently sought, and of service to the common good as richly effective as it was loyal and high-minded, his memory should be cherished as part of the noblest traditions of the University. PRESIDENT WHEELER'S REPORT An account of the way in which student self-government really works in the University of California, and a description of the reconstruction of the system of "colleges" and "schools" which constitute the interior organization of the University, these are outstanding features of President Wheeler's annual report, issued by the University in January. As special needs of the University President Wheeler points out: Additions to endowment, the income to be available for such needs as are most urgently felt. Endowments for professorships. A building for the Department of Music, containing a concertroom or small theatre. Alumni Hall (the students' union). Dormitories for Freshmen and Sophomores. $100,000 to complete and equip the new University Hospital in San Francisco. An Out-patient Building adjoining the University Hospital, to cost $100,000. A new laboratory building adjoining the University Hospital, to house Anatomy and Pathology, to cost $150,000. A nurses' home for the University Hospital, to accomodate a hundred nurses and to cost $100,000. Endowment for medicine and surgery and for the University Hospital. A new building for the College of Dentistry. A great reflecting telescope of not less than 100 inches for the Lick Observatory. A permanent fireproof museum building to house the collections in anthropology, archaeology, and art, now worth several million dollars, given to the University by Mrs. Hearst. An endowment for the University Press, the income to provide for the publication of scientific writings of members of the faculty. An armory. A new Infirmary for the students and the use of the present Infirmary for the faculty, who are not as yet admitted to Infirmary privileges. HOW THE UNIVERSITY GROWS Here are some of the facts concerning enrollment November 1, 1915, in the University of California brought out by the statistics published by John C. Burg of Northwestern University in Science for January 21, 1916: In total attendance, including graduate, undergraduate, professional, and Summer Session students, but excluding from the figures for California all University Extension, University Farm, Art, Wilmerding School, correspondence, and "night-school" students, California is exceeded in size only by Columbia and in number of undergraduates by no American university. California has the second largest Summer Session, Columbia enrolling last year 5961 and California 5364. California has the most "college" (excluding scientific schools, agriculture, commerce, etc.) undergraduates-3317 as compared with 3169 at Harvard. California is seventh in engineering students, having 712 and being exceeded by Michigan with 1498 and also by Cornell, Illinois, Yale, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In non-professional graduate students, California is fourth, being exceeded by Columbia, Chicago, and Harvard. In agricultural students California is sixth, being exceeded by Cornell, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio State University, and Minnesota. In architecture California is second, having 188 to Pennsylvania's 254. In rapidity of growth for the decade from 1905 to 1915, California, with a growth of 6924, was exceeded only by Columbia, with a growth of 7133. California apparently scored a more rapid growth in the past year than any other American university, but the abnormal expansion of the Summer Session, because of the Exposition, is in chief part responsible. Omitting the Summer Session, California grew by 363 students, being exceeded in growth for the year by Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Ohio State University, New York University, Chicago, and Illinois. THIRTY UNIVERSITIES COMPARED The comparative enrollment for thirty of the largest American universities on November 1, 1915 (including the Summer Session of 1915, and deducting duplicates), is reported by Mr. Burg as follows: Columbia 11,888, California 10,555, Chicago 7968, Pennsylvania 7404, Wisconsin 6810, Michigan 6684, New York University 6656, Harvard 6351, Cornell 6351, Illinois 6150, Ohio State 5451, Minnesota 5376, Northwestern 4408, Syracuse 4012, Missouri 3868, Texas 3572, Pittsburgh 3569, Nebraska 3356, Yale 3303, Iowa State 3138, Kansas 2806, Cincinnati 2524, Indiana 2347, Tulane 2160, Stanford 2061, Western Reserve 1825, Princeton 1615, Johns Hopkins 1586, Washington University 1264, Virginia 1008. Omitting Summer Session students, the enrollment figures on November 1, 1915, were as follow: Columbia 7042, Pennsylvania 6655, California 5977, New York University 5853, Michigan 5821, Illinois 5511, Harvard 5435, Cornell 5392, Ohio State 4897, Wisconsin 4868, Minnesota 4679, Chicago 4324, Northwestern 4153, Syracuse 3830, Pittsburgh 3569, Yale 3303, Nebraska 3067, Missouri 3043, Iowa State 2704, Texas 2611, Cincinnati 2524, Kansas 2470, Stanford 2048, Indiana 1771, Princeton 1615, Western Reserve 1469, Tulane 1321, Washington University 1264, Johns Hopkins 1173, Virginia 1008. Pennsylvania appears in Mr. Burg's figures as second in enrollment, excluding Summer Session students. However, the apparent size of Pennsylvania is somewhat misleading, owing to the including in this figure (6655) of large numbers of students who are taking teachers' classes or night courses in business subjects and who, because of the terms of admission or the nature of their work, are not comparable with regular college students, but instead with many of the thousands of students in University Extension classes, the University Farm School, etc., whom the University of California omits from its own enrollment figures. REGISTRATION IS 11,188 Up to February 1, 1916, the total registration in the University of California for the year ending June 30, 1916, was 11,188. Of these 1000 were graduate students, 5286 undergraduates; this means 6286 students at Berkeley; there were 5,364 in the Summer Session of 1915; 100 of University grade at the University Farm; 76 in the Hastings College of the Law; 114 in the Medical School; 26 in the Los Angeles Medical Department; 139 in the College of Dentistry; 97 in the College of Pharmacy; or, after deducting duplicates, 11,188, while officers of instruction and administration numbered 988. SOME STUDENT STATISTICS From August, 1915, to January 20, 1916, just 1940 new undergraduates were admitted, as compared with 1796 for the preceding year and 1814 for 1913-14. Of these, 246 were admitted in January, 1916, as compared with 1694 during the fall term. The January admissions of undergraduates, 246, were seven more than in January, 1915, and twenty-nine more than in January, 1914. Of the 246 new undergraduates, 175 were Freshmen and 71 were admitted to advanced standing. Scholarship mortality is four times as great among special as among regular students. Among the 4832 undergraduates at Berkeley during the half-year ending in December, 1915, there were 214 special students, yet of these 34 were disqualified for scholarship in December, or 15.8 per cent, as compared with only 4.2 per cent of the regular students. Of the 113 special students admitted in August, 1915, 22 or 19.5 per cent were disqualified for scholarship as compared with only 4.8 per cent of new regular students disqualified. The December examinations resulted in disqualifying |