the other buildings have rooms for about one hundred and sixty gentlemen. Good rooms can be procured cheap in the vicinity of the University, either with or without board. The rooms in the Female College building are furnished. Nothing but stoves is furnished in the other College buildings. FREE TUITION. Each member of the Assembly has the right, according to law, to appoint one student from his Assembly District, (provided such appointment be not already filled,) which appointment entitles the student so receiving it to free tuition in the University. A student so appointed holds his appointment during his whole course, unless he forfeits it by absence. One term's absence will forfeit an appointment. A student must be a resident of the Assembly District from which he is appointed. CONCLUSION. It is hoped that the State, fixed in its hearty confidence by the remarkable success of the University since its reorganization, will continue its fostering aid, and meet with a generous response the efforts of the Regents to place our State University among the leading educational institutions of the country. Confidence is a plant of slow growth and can be fostered to maturity only by a wise and timely conservatism, which forbids frequent or radical changes in the management or policy of public institutions. THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. [BY J. B, PRADT, ASSISTANT STATE SUPERINTENDENT. History. Among the provisions for education in the Constitution of the State, as adopted in 1848, it was provided "That the revenue of the School Fund should be exclusively applied to the following objects: "1st. To the support and 'maintenance of common schools in each school district, and the purchase of suitable libraries and appurtenances therefor. "2d. That the residue of the income of the School Fund shall be appropropriated to the support of Academies and Normal Schools, and suitable libraries and appurtenances therefor." Thus early was the need of Normal Schools recognized, but nothing was done to make any provision for them until 1857, when an act was passed, providing, "That the income of twenty-five per cent. of the proceeds arising from the sale of swamp and overflowed lands, should be appropriated to Normal Institutes and Academies, under the supervision and direction of a Board of Regents of Normal Schools," who were to be appointed in pursuance of the provisions of that act. Under this law, the income placed at the disposal of the Regents was distributed for several years to such colleges, academies and high schools as maintained a normal class, and in proportion to the number of pupils in the class who passed a satisfactory examinatios, conducted by an agent of the Board. This phase of normal work received a fresh impetus under the efforts of Dr. HENRY BARNARD, who was agent of the Board while he continued Chancellor of the University, and who inaugurated a system of Teachers' Institutes, as a branch of normal work. Considerable good was accomplished in this way, but the educational sentiment of the State demanded the establishment of Normal Schools proper. In 1865 the legislature divided the swamp lands and swamp land fund into two equal parts-one set apart for drainage purposes, the other to constitute a Normal School Fund-the increase of which should be applied to establishing, supporting and maintaining Normal Schools, under the direction and management of the Board of Regents of Normal Schools, with a proviso, that one-fourth of such income should be transferred to the common school fund, until the annual income of the school should reach $200,000. During the same year, proposals were invited for extending aid in the establishment of a normal school, in money, land or buildings. Propositions were received from various places, and their merits examined and reported upon by a committee. In 1866 the Board of Regents was incorporated by the legislature. In February, Platteville was conditionally selected as the site of a school, and as it had become apparent that a productive fund of about $600,000, with a net income of over $30,000, was already in hand, with a prospect of a steady increase J. T. LOVEWELL, A. B., Professor of Mathematics and Latin Language. T. C. CHAMBERLAIN, A. M.. Professor of Natural Sciences and Theory and Art of Teaching. Preceptress and Teacher of English Literature, French and Drawing. Teacher of Geography and History and Gymnastics. Principal Academic Department. MISS MARY A. BRAYMAN, MISS VIRGINIA DEICHMAN, Teacher of Moral and Mental Science, and Theory and Art of Teaching. Teacher of Reading and Music, and Director of Training School. ANNA W. MOODY, Teacher of Rhetoric and Mathematics. MISS MARY H. LADD, Teacher of Geography and History. MARTHA E. HAZARD, Teacher of English Grammar and Physical Culture. MARIA S. HILL, Teacher in Grammar Department of Training School. Teacher in Primary Department of Training School. |