Chap. 110.—An ACT to appropriate the sum of $165,000 to provide buildings,
equipment, and improvement for the Virginia polytechnic institute.

Approved March 12, 1904.

Whereas, there has been a most marked and continued increase of
students at the Virginia polytechnic institute, the attendance having
risen, from four hundred and seventy-two to seven hundred and twenty
within the past two years, and from three hundred and forty-three to
the present enrollment since any adequate appropriation has been made
for buildings and equipment ; and,

Whereas, the gravity .of the present crisis in the life of the institution
lies in the fact that the attendance has completely and at every point
outgrown the present educational plant—every department being not
only seriously overcrowded, but the resources of the institution and its
ability to give proper instruction absolutely overstrained, and the pro-
blem presented during this and the preceding session for handling the
large student body, and for temporary arrangements for the work of
instruction has been of exceptional difficulty, a difficulty which will
hereafter be insuperable without some measure of relief; and,

Whereas, what has given this institution its reputation and mainly
contributed to its remarkable growth has been the character of the train-
ing given and the thoroughness of its teaching, and it being impossible
with the present facilities to handle and give proper instruction to the
students in attendance, and as without the relief asked for the attend-
ance must be limited and the present number decreased, or the high
standard of the institution cannot be maintained ; and,

Whereas, any measure looking to a reduction in the number of stu-
dents would fall most heavily upon that large class among the best and
most promising students, who are of limited means, but anxious for an
education and willing to make any sacrifice, undergo any effort, to help
pay their way through this institution; and,

eas, some alternative must be resorted to unless immediate and
adequate provision is made for the needed buildings and equipment and
for increased facilities for instruction ; therefore,
1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the sum
of one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars be, and the same is
hereby, appropriated out of any moneys in the public treasury, not
otherwise appropriated, for buildings and equipment and improvement
for the Virginia polytechnic institute at Blacksburg, and that one.
half of the said sum of one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars shal!
be paid in the present fiscal year and the remainder in the next fiscal
year.