138 JOHN C. ALMACK
mouth in 1899. As late as 1906, G. W. Bishop quoted Presi- dent E. D. Ressler as saying that he would be delighted if the summer school enrollment reached fifty. Ashland held its first summer school in 1907. No special appropriation was set aside for the summer, and the teachers were but illy repaid for their services.
The courses offered were complex and varied. Commercial courses were strongly emphasized. Weston widely adver- tised her kindergarten and manual training courses. Mon- mouth had the following nine courses as late as 1905 : Educa- tion, Art of Teaching, English, Mathematics, Science, History, Arts, Civil Government, and Physical Education.
Graduates of the normals were admitted to the state uni- versity without examination, and degrees were granted. Mon- mouth conferred degrees of B.S., B.A., and M.A., and in 1904 gave the degree of Bachelor of the Science of Didactics. The other schools also granted these degrees with the exception of The Dalles, which was forced to content itself with the degree of Licentiate of Instruction.
In 1897 the entrance requirements were increased to the extent that in theory only students from schools accredited by the university were accepted. Ten years later only students who had completed the ninth grade were admitted. The schools were severely criticized for having low entrance re- quirements. Governor George Chamberlain in his message to the legislature in the year 1901 said :
"Many are admitted who are not well grounded in the rudi- ments of the common school branches."
Again, in 1905, he said the normals should not teach pupils in the common school subjects.
After state control was an established fact the tuition rates were set at six dollars a term, or twenty-four dollars a year. Reasonable as these charges were, they were not always col- lected. In October, 1907, in a letter to President A. L. Briggs of Drain, C. L. Starr, secretary of the board of regents, calls
