UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN


received the first doctor's degree which it conferred, became its
president. He brought to the University a new conception of the work
of a state university-that a university should be the servant of the
state to which it belongs, and that it should apply all its facilities
and resources in an effort to help solve the day-to-day problems of
the people of the state.
   This idea, first put forth by President Van Hise, became known as
 "The Wisconsin Idea" in education. During the entire period of
his
 administration from 1903 to 1918, President Van Hise worked for
 the expansion of this idea. It is recorded that he once said: "I shall
 never rest content until the boundaries of the campus have become
 the boundaries of the state." That the people of Wisconsin have
 given full-hearted approval to this idea during the past generation
 is revealed today by the widespread use they are making of the many
 off-campus public services which the University now carries on for
 them.
   It is true that in the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin the
 University is described as "an institution of learning". But down
 through the years since 1900, many legislatures, in response to pub-
 lic needs and demands, have added mandates to this original law of
 the state, requesting the University to conduct this research investi-
 gation or that public service for the welfare of the state and its
 people. The University has willingly undertaken the work requested,
 realizing its obligations to the people.
   Among the more important public services conducted by the Uni-
 versity are: the State Hygienic Laboratory; the Wisconsin General
 Hospital; the Wisconsin Orthopedic Hospital for Children; the Psy-
 chiatric Institute; the Electric Standards Laboratory; the Extension
 Division with its many services; the manufacture and distribution
 of legume cultures, Swiss cheese cultures, tuberculin, and vaccines
 and test fluids used by veterinarians in the diagnosing and preven-
 tion of various animal diseases; 4-H club work; the State Seed Lab-
 oratory; the State Limestone Testing Laboratory; the State Soils
 Laboratory; the radio stations; the State Geologist, and the Bureau
 of Business Research in the School of Commerce.
   Information on these public services is given in detail in the
following paragraphs.

                          Extension Division
   More people receive instruction from the University of Wisconsin
off the campus than on it. Such instruction is given through corre-
spondence study and extension classes and through various special
services available to the people of the state who are not enrolled in
the University. Correspondence study may be carried on for Univer-
sity credit and is always on an individual basis, the pupil receiving
assignments by mail from the instructor and writing papers and
taking examinations through the same method. A fee of $5 per credit
hour is charged residents of the state and $8 for nonresidents for
these courses. A great variety of courses, both academic and voca-


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