decade do not seem to have raised the number of admissions. The modest increase in the College enrollment may have resulted from the University’s growing reputation under Dr. Dodge’s leadership.
Tuition in the College remained at a low of $30.00 a year throughout the entire period while for the Academy it increased from $20.00 in 1869 to $36.00 in 1890. No tuition or room rent was charged the theologues. Room rents for College students and academes rose in 1887 from $9.00 to $10.50 and $15.00 a year and board was about $3.00 a week. Approximate overall costs per year for the College students increased from $168 to $180; for those in the Academy they rose from $159 to $200; but for those in the Seminary they remained about $130.
Until the new measures were taken for campus improvement in the early 1880’s, largely under Professor Taylor’s direction, student “house-keeping” in the dormitories was somewhat unsupervised and casual as it had always had been. The occupants papered, painted and carpeted their rooms as they chose and some even kept house plants in their windows. Each room was heated by its own stove, of course, and students furnished their own coal and wood and their banging coal scuttles and ash cans often resounded through the stairwells and halls.
After the Boarding Hall had been converted into apartments in 1874 students fended for themselves. Some took their meals with private families but the prevailing trend was to eat at fraternities or “clubs,” which occasionally bore such fanciful names as “Les Gens de Qualite.”
At Thanksgiving Dr. Dodge, at his own expense, made it a practice to see that each group had a turkey.
The Seminary professors and the Education Society Secretary, Dr. Lloyd, seem to have had difficulty in maintaining proper standards for admitting theological students. There was a scarcity of well-qualified men and it would appear also that several of limited abilities and background were attracted by a rather generous financial assistance policy. Many supplemented their resources and gained vocational experience, as their predecessors had done, by supplying in nearby churches, occasionally to the detriment of their academic obligations because of activities not directly related to their preaching assignments.
Though the University had a standing rule prohibiting students from marrying, men already married were occasionally admitted to the Seminary, especially those who enrolled in the Shorter Course. The
