The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1908 no. 184

              Number 184                                      Atlanta, Georgia                                     October, 1908 A Statement of Facts The fiscal year for Atlanta University comes to an end June 30th, though the books are usually held open for belated donations several weeks beyond that time. When receipts and disbursements were compared for the year 1907-08 we found ourselves with a balance of $116.16 to the good. We are especially grateful that we were able to complete this year without a deficiency. Some of our friends were obliged, because of the hard times, to curtail their usual gifts and others to omit them altogether. On the other hand there were some special gifts prompted by the interest aroused by the Memorial and Inauguration exercises held last year; and some of those who usually give, realizing that the year would present peculiar financial difficulties, increased the amount of their usual donations or made supplementary gifts. The net result however, was that our donations for the current expenses of the year fell almost four thousand dollars behind  those of the previous year. To offset this we received rather more than the previous year in the payments of the students, and there was a strenuous curtailment in expenses. We begin this year, therefore, with none of  last year's bills hanging over us and having made during the hard times no addition to the debt of Atlanta University. We did not accomplish this, however, without using about eight thousand dollars which came to the University in the form of unrestricted legacies and which we feel should have been added to the invested funds. The curtailment of expenses was effected by doing without all things that were not absolutely necessary for carrying on the work. Such a policy, while it can be sustained for a single year without great loss, would in a series of years leave us with equipment out of date and buildings and grounds in sad need of repair. This would not in the long run be economy, nor would it increase   the   value   of our  educational work. Policy for the New Year The Finance Committee of the Trustees wisely insists that for another year at least, or until we have the assurance of a larger income, the plan of curtailment be continued. The charge for students' board has this year been increased by one dollar a month. The students are meeting this increase in rates and the result will mean about a thousand dollars added to our income. Following the plan of last spring, by which a considerable saving of money was realized, the boarding department of Furber Cottage has been combined with that of the rest of the school, and the cottage is used this year only as a dormitory for the girls of the Normal classes, and the preceptress also teaches some of the classes in English. In this way and by giving a little heavier programme to other teachers than they had last year, we have reduced our teaching force by one, and thus save the salary of a teacher. The Practice School Children who attend the Oglethorpe School pay one dollar a month tuition in the grades and fifty cents a month in the kindergarten. We have this year added a seventh grade and are over-run with applicants for admission to all grades. The addition to the teaching force necessary has been provided for without additional expense by the establishment of the three tutorships elsewhere described, affording recent graduates from the Normal Course the opportunities of a year of graduate work, and affording the teachers at the Oglethorpe School the needed assistance in their work. There should be a net saving here for the present year, as the payments of pupils will amount to several hundred dollars more than last year. Additional seating will have to be provided and this of course will add to the expense. Vital Need of an Endowment Fund Atlanta University commences this fortieth year of its history with an enrollment of about two hundred and fifty pupils in the high school departments and one hundred in the normal and college departments. Teachers and pupils together, there are about one hundred and eighty in the boarding department. To maintain this work in all its departments, academic, industrial and home,   costs annually about sixty-one thousand dollars. From payments of students and income from material plant we may count upon about twenty-two thousand dollars, leaving a balance of about thirty-nine thousand dollars to be met by the gifts of friends and the income from endowment. Atlanta University has an endowment of only seventy-two thousand dollars. Consequently the president has to raise among friends of the work between thirty-five and thirty-six thousand dollars annually. The great need of Atlanta University is an endowment sufficient to maintain the work, as at present organized and officered, at its highest degree of efficiency, and to increase the scope and effectiveness of the work, as could surely be done if the force and energy which must now be expended in raising money for current expenses could be devoted to the constant development of our work, adapting it to meet the ever-changing needs of a growing people. Those who love Atlanta University and look to her for help and inspiration are numbered by the thousands. The Negroes feel that during the forty years of her existence she has been unswervingly true to them and to their highest interest. This sentiment marks our peculiar opportunity. They expect great things of us and they must not be disappointed. To meet this expectation does not mean necessarily to increase the size of Atlanta University. It means rather, on the one hand constantly to improve the quality, both in practical and inspirational elements, of the work which is offered the students of the College and Normal courses; and on the other hand, through the activities and publications of the Conferences for the study of Negro Problems, through University extension work and through a system of traveling libraries, in the proper and effective use of which our students can be trained, to make the influence of this center felt for good by thousands who cannot be resident students. I do not wish to minimize the importance of the high school work, preparatory to College and Normal courses.    At present two  hundred  and Continued on 3d page.