Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/302

 264 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO of applause until he had taken his place before the President. And when the degree of high honor was conferred and the hood was placed about his neck, the applause began again, and lasted until the modest and able young scholar had resumed his seat. It is significant of the international character of the work which the University is set to do that the first to win the Ph.D. should be a foreigner and Dr. Eiji Asada's name will ever stand first on the roll of honor in the Graduate School. He will become professor of Old Testament Literature in the Methodist Seminary at Tokio. At this Convocation the appointment of sixty-eight Fellows for the following year was announced. In the President's quarterly statement it was said that while, one year before, in a published official forecast, the number of students estimated for the Graduate School had been placed at one hundred, the number actually enrolled the first year had been two hundred and ten, and that the enrolment in the Divinity School had been two hundred and four. As has been stated elsewhere the total attendance in the colleges and higher departments had been seven hundred and forty- two. The President also said: Kelly, Beecher, and Snell halls are practically completed and are now occupied. Foster Hall is under roof. The Walker Museum is also under roof. The Ryerson Physical Laboratory has reached the third floor. The work in Kent Chemical Hall is completed, except the plumbing Within eighteen months buildings costing nearly one and one-quarter millions of dollars have been erected. The President also announced that friends of the University, quite independently of the University itself, had organized "The Students' Fund Society," the purpose of which was to collect funds and dis- tribute them, in the form of loans to students who gave clear indi- cations of scholarly ability. This society continued its beneficent work year after year. The first year vindicated the Convocation and established it in the affections of the University and the interest of the public. The June Convocation of the year brought together in an "annual" meeting the alumni of the Old University, who thus accepted their relation as alumni of the new University of Chicago. At the alumni banquet in Cobb Hall President Harper said: I am heartily glad to welcome you here tonight, ladies and gentlemen of the associated alumni. I see here a pamphlet with the names and addresses