isa-normaladvance-1913-00070

Description:	70THE NORMAL ADVANCEStem* of InterestNEEDS OF THE INSTITUTION.0 I VHE following article is a copy of a por--*■ tion of the regular report of the President of the State Normal School to the Legislature of the state:In 1909 the State Normal asked the GeneralAssembly for two things—an increase in thetax for maintenance and a specific appropriation for the construction of a new building.No appropriation was made for a new building and the tax levy was not increased, but aspecial appropriation of $12,500 was made foreach of the two years ending respectively,September 30, 1910, and September 30, 1911,as increased maintenance. This enabled theinstitution to tide over a period during whichthe attendance grew very rapidly and theneeds of the school expanded in every way.Again, in 1911, the institution repeated itsrequest to the General Assembly for an increase in the tax for maintenance and a specificappropriation for a new building, which bythis time had become very urgently needed.The condition of the state treasury and thegeneral resources of the state were such thatthese requests were again denied, but a supplemental appropriation of $24,375 for maintenance for each of the two succeeding yearswas made. While this has. been insufficient tomeet the growing requirements of the schoolit has enabled the institution to carry on itswork with a fair degree of satisfaction to thepresent time.But the school is growing very rapidly. Byreference to the table of attendance given onpage 16 of this report, it will be seen that during the year ending September 30, 1912, theIndiana State Normal School enrolled 2,866different students. During the spring term ofthis year there were 1,833 teachers in attendance, in addition to 253 pupils in the trainingschool. In the summer of this year the schoolenrolled 1,765 different teachers. It is impossible with its present income for the StateNormal School to maintain its standing as aprofessional institution for the training ofteachers for the public schools.Within the last few years a new field ofwork has been introduced into the publicschools of Indiana and the entire country—manual training, domestic science and the industrial arts have been made an integral partof the public school work, and the schools allover the state are demanding teachers who arecapable of teaching these new subjects. TheState Normal School, which is maintained bythe state solely for the purpose of preparingteachers for the public schools of Indiana, hasbeen and is unable to respond in any satisfactory degree to this demand for such teachers. The present income of the institution isinsufficient, and if it were adequate the schoolhas no building or quarters in which the workcould be carried on. One of the four largebuildings is used exclusively for library purposes, a second is used almost entirely for thetraining schools, and the other two buildingsare filled to overflowing with public schoolteachers attending the school. It is imperative, therefore, that the Normal School havea material increase in its annual income formaintenance, and that it have a substantialnew building suited in every way to the teaching of these new subjects.I respectfully petition the general assembly,therefore, to increase the tax for the supportof the Indiana State Normal School fifty percent above the present rate and for a specialappropriation of $125,000 for the constructionof a new building to be used for teachingmanual training in all its departments, domestic science and the industrial arts.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34515
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

Further information on this record can be found at its source.