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WESTERN ILLINOIS STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE.

W. P. MORGAN, President.

HIS SCHOOL was established April 24, 1899. While it began as a normal school with the two-year curriculum, it has developed into a teachers' college and offers three four-year college curriculums, as well as the two-year courses with which it started. In these four-year college curriculums the subjects which are usually offered by colleges are included, as well as some professional subjects which relate to teaching. In addition to the development of the four-year college curriculums, two and a half year special curriculums in music, home economics, manual training. physical education, library economy, primary work, agriculture, English, history, geography, mathematics, and science are offered.

The school was located at Macomb August 14, 1900. The campus comprises nearly sixty acres and was presented to the State by the citizens of Macomb and vicinity. It has been carefully planned. Many trees and much shrubbery have been set out. Drives and walks have been put in, so that it has now grown into a place of very great beauty. The main building was opened for school work September 23, 1902. It cost over $400,000.

In 1911 a woman's building or dormitory was planned. The building was furnished and occupied December 8, 1913, at a total cost of about $90,000. It contains rooms which will accommodate eighty-five girls. The dining room will seat 120 persons comfortably.

In 1915 an appropriation was provided by the State for the erection of a School of Arts building. This building was occupied three years later at a total cost of $135,000. This was opened for use in the fall of 1918. It contains the home economics department, the drawing and design department and the manual training department.

Prior to the location of the School of Arts building, it was deemed necessary to have a general building plan so that this building, as well as future buildings, might be arranged for the convenience of the institution. A landscape artist was therefore employed, who has worked out an elaborate campus plan which seems ample to meet the needs of the school for the next fifty years.

The library contains about 19,000 volumes, which have been selected with the greatest care on basis of the peculiar needs of the school. It is primarily a reference library and is under the direction and oversight of skilled librarians.

The school has laboratories and workrooms with carefully selected apparatus for the departments of biology, agriculture, physics, chemistry, geography, commercial work, drawing and design, manual training, and home economics. In its new quarters the manual training department has charge of a very fine cafeteria, which is much appreciated by the students. In addition to its other laboratory facilities, it has a five-room model apartment fitted and furnished for the practical training of the girls in the home economics work and for the general instruction of the girls in the student body.

In general the school plant has been developed so that the buildings are very beautiful. The landscape effects on the campus are artistic, and the various classrooms, laboratories and library are well adapted to the work of the regular classes. There are also several large rooms set apart for the literary societies, Y. M. and Y. W. organizations and other special student organizations in the school. On the whole there is such a general coordination of all the elements in the school that it is a very profitable and pleasant place for young men and young women to do work of college grade.

The Fifty-second General Assembly changed the name from the Western Illinois State Normal School to the Western Illinois State Teachers' College at Macomb.

NORMAL STATISTICS.

Attendance at the Western Illinois State Teachers' College is shown in the following table:

WESTERN ILLINOIS STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE.

1-General view of campus; 2 Terrace steps to main entrance; 3-President Walter P. Morgan; 4-Lake Ruth; 5-Monroe Hall; 6-School of Art.

PER CAPITA COST FOR OPERATING THE SCHOOL FOR 36 WEEKS.

NOTE-The per capita cost does not include interest on the amount invested in the buildings, grounds, and equipment nor does it include any allowance for their depreciation although repairs are included.

The school has experienced the same difficulties that colleges and universities have encountered during the war period. The attendance has diminished and the expenses have increased, but the readjustment is coming slowly. This is especially apparent in the attendance. A very critical condition still exists, however. The common schools, both elementary and high, have suffered because of the scarcity of well trained teachers. Everything possible must be done to make the teacher training institutions of the State attractive to young men and women, especially the former, in order that the schools may have excellent teachers during the reconstruction period. This is the time when unusual amounts should be expended for strong faculties and fine equipment for normal schools.

THE EASTERN ILLINOIS STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE.

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LIVINGSTON C. LORD, President.

HE EASTERN Illinois State Teachers' College is located at Charleston, the county seat of Coles County. Charleston is on the Big Four and Clover Leaf Railroads and is connected with the Illinois Central at Mattoon by an interurban railway.

To provide more adequate facilities for the training of teachers for the public schools of the State the Legislature by an act approved May 22, 1895, established the Eastern Illinois State Normal. On September 7, 1895, the five trustees provided for in the act selected a beautiful forty-acre tract of land three-quarters of a mile south of the public square of Charleston. The citizens of Charleston bought the land and presented it to the State. The grounds have a good elevation and are shaded by bany fine old trees.

1-Woman's Building; 2-President Livingston C. Lord; 3-Main Building; 4-Training School.

December 2, 1895, the contract was made for the erection of the building. The cornerstone was laid on the afternoon of May 27, 1896. The building and grounds were dedicated August 29, 1899, and on September 12, 1899, the institution was opened to students.

During the first year there were seventeen members of the faculty and 240 students. At the end of the first year, June, 1900, four students were granted the diploma of the school upon completion of the course of study. The school has grown steadily, graduating seventy-one students in 1918.

During the summer of 1901 a special term of six weeks was established for teachers. This term, beginning with an enrollment of 172 students the first summer, has reached a maximum enrollment of 1,023.

"In order to equalize the advantages of the State Normal Schools," encourage attendance and thereby increase their usefulness, the State Legislature passed the Lindley bill in 1905. The act provides that "there shall be awarded annually to each school township or fractional township a scholarship which shall entitle the holder thereof to gratuitous instruction in any State Normal School for a period of four years."

In 1907 the State Legislature appropriated $100,000 for a woman's building. This building was completed and occupied in January, 1909. It has proved to be a distinct addition to the cultural value of the school. In addition to providing a beautiful home for 100 young women during their residence in Charleston, it has had a marked influence in establishing good standards of living and has come to be the social center of school life.

As the school increased in numbers its facilities gradually became too restricted, and in 1911 the State Legislature appropriated $75,000 for a Training School building. The Training School now enjoys all the advantages of a building designed and equipped for its special use, and the Normal School has apportunity for a more economical organization and an increase cf its facilities.

Beginning with the school year 1920-21, the school has offered four-year Teachers' College curriculums, open to graduates of recognized four-year high schools and leading to a bachelor's degree. The authority to confer this degree was granted to Illinois State Normal Schools by the State Legislature.

The school has always stood for sound scholarship and has striven to inculcate in the minds of its students a sincere love for truth. One of the gratifying evidences that it is in a measure fulfilling its mission is the fact that so many of its students have gone on to higher institutions of learning, the better to equip themselves for service.

The Fifty-second General Assembly changed the name of the school from the Eastern Illinois State Normal to the Eastern Illinois State Teachers' College at Charleston.