ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

To the Trustees:

In accordance with the provisions of the Statutes, there is submitted herewith the annual report of the activities of the University for the year ending June 30, 1916. Together with the report of the President, and as a part thereof, there are submitted the reports of the several administrative officers of the University. Particular attention is called to the specific observations and recommendations contained in these reports of administrative officers, each one of which has direct bearing on the successful carrying on of the University's business.

Present Conditions

The present situation of the University is accurately revealed by the fact that the Treasurer's Report for the year ending June 30, 1916, shows a deficit of $40,855.14 and that the Budget adopted for year ending June 30, 1917, shows an estimated deficit for that year of $92,661.95. This means that the normal income of the University falls far short of meeting the necessary cost of work now established and in progress. Even if that work were in all respects adequately supported and equipped, and even if the compensation of academic officers were in all respects satisfactory, it would still be impossible for the University to take any important forward step without large additions to its productive funds. These facts explain why it is that the important and well-matured projects which the University has it in mind to carry out are all held in

abeyance through lack of means. When, in the Annual Report for 1902, the statement was made that $10,000,000 were urgently needed by Columbia University, and it was shown in detail how so large a sum could be promptly and effectively employed, the amount was thought to be unprecedently large. In the interval since 1902 so much has taken place, and so many new and useful avenues of academic activity have opened, that it is within the mark to say that the sum of $30,000,000 must still be added to the resources of Columbia University if it is, within a reasonable time, to accomplish satisfactorily the tasks that are now laid upon it.

Of these, the most important and the most pressing is that of going forward, in coöperation with the Presbyterian Hospital, to carry out the plans for a medical center and for developing graduate instruction and research in medicine and surgery on a scale at least equal to that found anywhere else in the world. For this project alone, the sum of $12,000,000 will be needed if the plan, adequately endowed, is to be carried out in all its fullness of detail, including the diagnostic clinic so clearly described in the report of the Dean of the Medical Faculty. If, because of the existence of such a group of institutions as we have in mind and because of its facilities for research and its highly trained scientific workers, it were possible either greatly to allay or wholly to remove the distress, the suffering, and the terror that took possession of the city of New York and a large part of the country during the past summer because of the numerous cases of poliomyelitis, the entire expenditure would have justified itself in a few months' time. The very greatness and importance of this undertaking have prevented its being fully grasped by the country at large. What is proposed is not to duplicate any existing institution in this country or elsewhere, but rather to build up, on