Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 294

the purpose of creating retirement annuities. Relatively few took advantage of this plan in its early years. It was with considerable enthusiasm, therefore, that college teachers over the country hailed the gift by John D. Rockefeller, in December, 1919, of $50,000,000 to the General Education Board, the income of which was to be used for increasing teachers' salaries. Tech instructors hoped that the Trustees would secure a fair share of it for W. P. I.

Concurrent with the growing realization that faculty salaries must be increased were two favorite projects of the alumni, about which they were becoming increasingly vocal. One was the ambition for more alumni representation on the Board of Trustees, the other an enthusiasm for more business courses in the curriculum. Dr. Hollis encouraged these ambitions fully as much because they promised to be spearheads in the advance of alumni interests as because they might be worth-while innovations. At a psychological time, October, 1919, he called a two-day conference of alumni, faculty, and trustees to discuss these three projects, in their relationship to the Institute's major problem of finance. As a sales convention this meeting was a huge success. Scores of alumni attended, everyone had a chance to air his views, and a tremendous amount of enthusiasm was generated, so much in fact that the big endowment campaign was in full swing before any but a few shrewd leaders suspected that it was the major object of the meeting.

Dr. Hollis disclosed that instructors were being started at salaries of from $1,200 to $1,500, that some full professors were receiving only $2,000, and that a few professors were paid $4,000 a year. Putting the situation before his audience in more vivid terms, he remarked that, "a young man coming here and looking forward may hope, in the course of twenty-five or thirty years, to get himself up to a salary that will entitle him to marry, so that by the time he ought to have grandchildren he is thinking of looking for a wife.

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