Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 152

STUDENT LIFE WITH DR. FULLER

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ENROLLMENT in the apprentice class from 1883 to 1889 was limited by the capacity of the shop to a maximum of 32. The average number in the junior class was about 50, and the total enrollment about 150. The opening of Salisbury Laboratories and of the addition to the shop provided room for expansion, and total enrollment increased rapidly. There were 65 in the final apprentice class, in 1893, many of them coining because this was the last opportunity to complete the course in three and a half years. It was the largest class matriculated up to 1903. The total enrollment reached a new peak of 279 in 1892-93.

The interests and activities of students expanded with enrollments. They were eager to do the things that other college men of their generation were doing, but along many of the by-ways they came eventually to a stone wall of faculty disapproval. When they did overstep established bounds they were rather severely punished or humiliated.

Time for athletics was not considered necessary by the faculty in the second administration any more than in the first. Except for interclass contests in football and baseball, the chief events of the year were the Field Days at Agricultural Park. Competition was lively enough to arouse much public interest, and records in the various events were im

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999