Course of study published in the catalogue of 1843-44—Continued.

In spite of the most serious difficulties the university continued to advance. The first few reports of the regents were discouraging and melancholy enough. Students were increasing in numbers, but the funds for paying more professors or developing the university in other ways seemed not to be forthcoming. In 1842 the professors were told that there was no money to pay them, and that they might either sever their connection with the institution or continue with the hope of receiving remuneration when the board was possessed of the means. Nearly all of the small income received was used in paying interest on the $100,000 indebtedness, and during these years, it will be remem. bered, the branches were also recipients of the university money. In 1844, because of some alleviating legislation on the part of the State and for other reasons, affairs took a brighter aspect. The faculty received some additions about this time. It consisted in 1844-45 of 3 professors and 1 tutor, au assistant in geology and chemistry, and a lecturer. The number of students increased from 6 in 1841-42 to 55 in 1844-45, and on August 6 of 1845 the university graduated its first class, 11 students being given the degree of bachelor of arts. When the college year of 1845-46 opened the university seemed on the full tide of success, with a faculty of 6 full professors, an assistant professor and instructor, and a number of students. These facts indicated that the university was well known and that its merits were recognized in the State.

With this somewhat detailed statement of the opening of the university it will be necessary to hurry on to a more cursory outline of its progress. In 1847 a memorial was presented to the board in reference

to the establishment of a medical department. There was some discussion in this year as to the advisability of establishing the law de partment as well. But it was finally decided that the medical department ought first to be established, and action was taken accordingly. A committee reported at some length as to methods and aims, and especially called attention to the necessity of requiring a preparation for medical studies which would insure an intelligent conception of the physician's work in its intellectual and ethical requirements. The medical school was not opened till the autumn of 1850. The faculty, composed of 5 professors, had been selected some time before this date, and had organized in May by the election of Dr. Sager as their president.

This department almost immediately entered upon a prosperous career. The first year saw as many as 91 students enrolled. The qualifications for admission have not, until recently, been materially altered. The department has greatly increased its efficiency in many ways, but the change has been almost entirely in increasing requirements for graduation, while leaving the requirement for admission unaltered,2 The building which, though much enlarged, is still the home of the medical department, was ready for occupancy at the opening of the school. It is interesting to notice that the committee which had the matter of establishing the department in charge decided against the legality, not to speak of the advisability, of locating the medical department in another city.

Not in all ways was the university successful and prosperous in the latter years of the decade of which we are speaking. The number of students of the literary department decreased from 89 in 1847-248 till in 1851-252 there were only 57. This diminution was undoubtedly partly due to the fact that at about that time the university discontinued its assistance of the branches, and thus preparation was less ac cessible.

Part of this was due to the disturbances within the university known

The services of Dr. Zina Pitcher, who had been on the board since the organization of the university, though valuable in every way, were of special value to the medical department at this time and until his death. That department speedily took the rank which it has ever since maintained among the leading medical colleges of the country. Like the literary department, it has been fortunate in retaining in its chairs for more than a generation at least two of its accomplished teachers.—[University of Michigan, Semicentennial, p. 170.

2 To be admitted to the degree of doctor of medicine the student must exhibit evidence of having pursued the study of medicine and surgery for the term of 3 years with some respectable practitioner of medicine (including lecture terms); must have attended two full courses of lectures, the last of which must have been in the medical department of the Univerity of Michigan; must be 21 years of age; must have submitted to the faculty a thesis composed and written by himself on some medical subject, and have passed an examination held at the close of the term satisfactory to the faculty. Such were the requirements for graduation in 1850.

commonly as the "society war," a difficulty arising from the efforts of the faculty to crush out the secret societies, the influence of which in college life was deleterious, it was maintained, to the best interests of the students and the institution. The interests and prejudices of this contest traveled beyond the confines of the campus, and to some extent, at least, affected the prosperity of the university. Students were expelled; memorials were presented; a mass meeting of the citizens of Ann Arbor demanded a change in the administration of the university; a statement that the faculty were striking at secret societies in general aroused secret society men of the whole State in opposition to the faculty's action, which was proclaimed to be "an abridgment of the rights of man;" the legislature as well as the regents became involved in the discussion, and general confusion prevailed. But such turmoil was an effect of confusion in the management of university affairs, which showed the need of a simple, single, and consistent policy, put into operation by a single and competent head. No such storm would have resulted from so slight a cause if in those days there had been a wise and conservative director who felt personally the responsi bility for the failure or success of the institution.

A coming change was foreshadowed in a report of a committe appointed in 1840 to inquire into the condition of the university. Their report contained a recommendation for the transfer of authority from the legislature to the regents, and showed in detail that men qualified for general legislation were by no means ipso facto qualified to be guardians of a great educational institution:

When legislatures have legislated directly for colleges, their measures have been as fluctuating as the changing materials of which they are composed. When they have acted under a board of trustees, under the show of giving representation to all, they have appointed men of such discordant and dissimilar views that they never could act in concert, so that, supposed to act for and represent every body, they, in fact, have not and could not act for anybody. What the legislature should attempt in reference to the university is, in the opinion of the committee, to put the whole subject into the hands of competent men, leaving it with undivided responsibility on their shoulders, and then the legislature not to meddle with it again except to protect it as guardians, not to destroy it as capricious despots. Repeated legislative interference, known by experience to be the ruin of a cause like this, would soon dishearten every regent who takes an interest or active part in the duties of his office, and the whole plan would soon come to the ground. The duties of the regents, in their turn, will be mostly to provide the means and apparatus and the like, and to fill the various faculties with able men, and throw the undivided responsibility of carrying on the work of education on them. A board of experienced regents can manage the funds of the university better than any legislature; and the faculty can manage the business of education-the interior of the college-better than any regents.1

What was the complete effect of this brave and vigorous statement, we can not tell. The legislature did interfere with the management of university affairs for some 12 years after the rendering of this report.

1 Quoted in Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the University of Michigan, by Charles Kendall Adams, p. 13.

But it seems certain that it did produce some effect, and that its influence was continuously felt, standing forth, as it did, a wise announcement of a wholesome doctrine. For without the application of this principle in the management of the university complications would have arisen in the history of the institution, in comparison with which the difficulties of the latter part of the first decade of its existence would have amounted to very little. This great principle was, however, given full efficacy in the new constitution of the State, as far at least as legislative interference was concerned. The cognate doctrine, noninterference by the regents in the proper domain of the faculty, has up to this time been zealously adhered to by successive boards.

The constitution adopted by the people in 1851 contained the following important provisions:

There shall be elected in each judicial district, at the time of the election of the judge of such circuit, a regent of the university whose term of office shall be the same as that of such judge. The regents thus elected shall constitute the board of regents of the University of Michigan.

The regents of the university shall at their first annual meeting, or as soon thereafter as may be, elect a president of the university, who shall be ex officio a member of their board, with the privilege of speaking but not of voting. He shall preside at the meetings of the regents and be the principal executive officer of the university. The board of regents shall have the general supervision of the university, and the direction and control of all expenditures from the university interest fund.'

And thus the question of president or no president was emphatically answered by constitutional enactment; and the president of the uni versity has been since 1852 a necessary officer of the institution in accordance with a constitutional requirement, a unique instance, if the writer mistake not, in the laws governing State institutions.

The closing days of the board under the moribund constitution were cloudy ones. The faculty were quarreling among themselves. Some of the regents were displeased with some members of the faculty, and to smooth the way for the incoming board it was finally decided to dismiss the whole faculty. The following resolution was carried:

́Resolved, That in view of the duty devolving upon the board of regents elect to reorganize the faculty of arts in the University of Michigan, and to appoint a president, it is expedient that this board provide for that contingency by determining the terms of the existing members of said faculty: Therefore,

Resolved, That the terms of office of the present professors of natural philosophy and mathematics; of logic, rhetoric, and history; and of Greek and Latin languages in the university, respectively, terminate and expire at the close of the present academic year, or at such other previous time as the board of regents may determine to appoint their successors.

This act did not include Professor Fasquelle, who seems to have kept wisely aloof from the quarrels in which other members of the faculty.

1This clause of the constitution has been judicially interpreted to mean that the regents are exempt from interference by the legislature, and the regents have had no hesitation in acting according to their own judgment, even if their course was not acceptable to the legislature.

2 Quoted in Miss Farrand's Hist. of Univ. of Mich., pp. 85-86,

were involved. While it has all the appearance of a summary order for execution the result of the action was probably to put an end to needless bickerings, and to give to the new board a fair field for its efforts. In 1852, therefore, the university began a new era of its existence. It is not too much to say that it put on the toga viridis and prepared for the duties of maturity. The change meant a transfer of the management of the university into the hands of men elected because of capacity for dealing with educational matters, under the guidance of a president whom they in their wisdom might select. The first board had done a good work; the wonder is that there had been so much har mony and so much prosperity. Many of the members were astute politicians, possessed of cleverness and good political ability; few of them had special interest in educational matters, and a diversity of duties meant a division of interest and double allegiance. Much had been done, but much remained to be done before the university could take rank among the great collegiate institutions of the country.