Reports of Departments. DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND SANITARY ENGINEERING. No changes in the staff of the Department have occurred during the past year, except that one assistant, Mr. Clarence D. Howe, resigned to accept the position of Professor of Civil Engineering at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. This left one vacancy among the assistants, and one additional assistant having been authorized by the corporation, Messrs. Howard B. Luther and Mason T. Whiting were appointed. The staff of the Department is now larger than ever before, consisting of four professors, two associate professors, four assistant professors, two instructors, and eight assistants. During the past year Professors Breed and Hosmer published the second volume of their treatise on Surveying, thereby completing the work as planned. This book has already been adopted in a large number of the technical schools of this country. The curriculum of the Course in Civil and Sanitary Engineering has not been changed during the past year. The senior class will, during the present year, experience the effect of the change made two years ago, by which one year of modern language was removed from the Course, and instruction in mechanics begun in the second year. It is not intended, on account of this change, to cover any more ground than previously; but it will be possible to devote more time to some of the subjects, and it is hoped that the instruction will in consequence be more thorough. Owing to the business depression, the demand for graduates has been less this year than for many years past. Notwithstanding this, a large number of men who graduated last June have found positions. Of a total of 76 men belonging to the class of 1908, 9 have returned to the Institute for further study, 2 have returned as assistants, and 37 are known to be employed elsewhere, leaving 28 unaccounted for. Many of these last are undoubtedly employed, but have not notified us of the fact; and, with the revival of business, if the experience of the past is any guide for the future, the demand for our men will soon greatly exceed the supply. It is gratifying to note the number of graduates of this Department who are engaged in teaching. Reference has been made to Mr. Clarence D. Howe, who has taken charge of the Department of Civil Engineering at Dalhousie University, and reference may also be made to one of the graduates of the Class of 1908, Mr. Allston Dana, who has gone to the University of Montana. During the summer, also, one of the graduates of 1907, Mr. Fred W. Morrill, was sent to Tientsin, China, to take charge of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Imperial University. Another of the graduates of 1907, Mr. Hudson B. Hastings, has been made Assistant Professor at Bowdoin College. The particular needs of the Department at the present time are increased space and the relief of the curriculum by the transfer of the field work in surveying to the summer. With reference to space, while the number of students in the Department is not increasing very rapidly, and, while it is not desired that it should, nevertheless, there is great need of additional space because our drawing rooms are already crowded to their full capacity. The library, also, is growing so fast that it affords entirely inadequate opportunity for students to use it as a place for study. Within a year or two, if its growth continues as it has in the past, it will be practically only a storehouse for books. There will be differences of opinion with reference to the advisability of increasing our numbers. Personally, however, I believe that it would be wisest not to allow our numbers to increase much above what they are at present, but to gradually raise the standard of scholarship throughout the Institute so that we may turn out more first-class men. There are in the Institute, as in other educational institutions, men who ought not to be there; some because of lack of ability, and some because their abilities lie in other directions. Many of these men, of course, drop out before the conclusion of the Course; but, nevertheless, a good many remain. This question, of course, is one of general policy, which should be applied to all departments alike; but in any case it is to be expected that there should be a gradual, if slow, increase in the number of students, while if adequate room were available for expansion, and no effort were made to keep down the numbers by raising the standard, the growth might be quite rapid. In Cornell University, for example, the number of students in the Department of Civil Engineering (in all four classes) has increased from 326 in 1903-04 to 499 in 1907-08. There are many advantages in a large school, provided the number of teachers keeps pace with the increase in the number of students, and provided the increase in teachers is not made by increasing the number of assistants, but by increasing the number of members of the Faculty as well. In the Department of Civil Engineering there are fewer students now per teacher than there were ten years ago. A comparison in this respect may be instructive. In 1897-98 there were 4 professors, I assistant professor, 3 instructors, and 3 assistants, a total of 11 teachers; while the number of students was 155, giving an average of 14 students per teacher and 31 students per professor. In 1907-08 there were 4 professors, 2 associate professors, 4 assistant professors, 2 instructors, and 7 assistants, a total of 19; while the number of students was 227, giving an average of 12 per teacher and 23 per professor. SUMMER SCHOOL OF SURVEYING. With reference to the desirability of relieving the crowded curriculum by the transfer of the field work in surveying to the summer, I have already reported in previous years, and I wish once more to urge the importance of this matter. The Institute should either purchase or lease a large tract of land in one of the New England States, and should provide a summer camp, equipped to accommodate some one hundred and fifty students. In this camp, instruction should be given during the summer in the surveying field work now given in our second year, the railroad and surveying field work now given in the third year, and the hydraulic field work now given in the fourth year. The best plan would seem to be to require every student at the end of the second year to spend eight weeks at this camp, of which time, four weeks would be devoted to the surveying field work now given in the second year and the remaining four weeks to the field work now given in the third and fourth years. It might be well to allow students the option of taking the entire work in one summer, that following the second year, or in two summers, taking in the summer following the first year the four weeks course in elementary surveying and in the summer following the second year the four weeks course in railroad and advanced surveying and hydraulic field work. A camp for carrying on this work, on the basis of one hundred and fifty students at one time, should be provided with one main building, containing two rooms to be used as lecture rooms, drawing rooms, or living rooms which would have an area of 2,500 or 3,000 square feet; also a building containing a kitchen and dining-room; another building containing an instrument room and supply room and several sleeping rooms for students who may be ill or who for some reason cannot occupy tents; an ice house, and a sanitary. It would be expected that the students would ordinarily sleep in tents provided with wooden floors. The estimated cost of these build |