The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Wyoming, University of

WYOMING, University of, located at Laramie, Wyo. It was chartered by the legislature of the Territory of Wyoming in 1886, and opened to students in 1887; the first State legislature in 1890 passed an act enlarging the scope of the University and also made the State Agricultural College provided by the national grants a part of the University organization. The State has since doubled its regular appropriation and made several others for special purposes. The University is open to women on equal terms; tuition is tree except in the Department of Music. The educational policy of the University was liberal from the first; the preparatory and collegiate departments were the first established; the organization now includes the Preparatory School; the College of Liberal Arts; the Graduate School; the Normal School; the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station; the College of Engineering; the School of Mines; the School of Commerce; the School of Music; the department of secondary education, and a summer school. The College of Liberal Arts offers a classical, a literary and a scientific course and confers the degree of B.S. for the scientific course without Latin, and the degree of B.A. for all other courses. In each course the work of the Freshman year is required, the work of the Sophomore year partially elective, and the work of the Junior and Senior years almost entirely elective. The Graduate School was discontinued in 1914. The regular courses in the Normal School, the College of Agriculture, the College of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Mines are five years in length, including one preparatory year. t T he degree of B. Ped. is conferred for the completion of the normal course; the degree of B.S. for the agricultural, engineering and mining courses. There are also a one year's course in the Normal School, a course in domestic science, a one year's and a two years' agricultural course and a ranchmen's winter course in the College of Agriculture, and a winter course of six weeks in the School of Mines. The School of Commerce offers two two-year courses in bookkeeping and in stenography; the School of Music a seven-years' course in piano. Instruction in military science and tactics is also given. The University has organized a University Extension Association, which conducts extension lectures in all parts of the State; a Correspondence Teaching Department is also conducted, by which some of the work toward a degree may be done. The campus now occupies over 40 acres in the eastern part of the city; the buildings are the Hall of Languages, the Mechanical Building, the Hall of Science, and the Gymnasium; the three first mentioned are built of gray sandstone, which is found near Laramie. The library contains about 35,000 volumes; the students number 603; and 80 professors and instructors.

The University of Wyoming, though in numbers one of the smallest of the State universities, is well equipped and maintains a high standard of scholarship, as the real head of the educational system of the State.