PORTO RICO, University of, an tion for the promotion of higher education, created by an act of the insular legislature which was approved 12 March 1903. The president of its board of trustees writes that one of the first acts of the canny dur ing the occupation of the island by military forces of the United States at the close of the Spanish-American War was the establishment of a normal school. (For the need of instruc tion, and of teachers to give it, see Poi•ro Rico: Population and Education). That school was located at Fajardo on a site of 80 acres given for the purpose by the citizens of that town. It soon became evident, however, that a more central location was required, and, therefore, in 1901 the school was transferred to Rio Piedras. When the university was founded (1903) the normal school with its land, etc., passed under the control of the university board of trustees and became the first department of that institu tion to be into full operation. In its building and equipment the normal department has enjoyed the liberality and interest of the people of Porto Rico. Its growth has been steady. At the April 1913 meeting of the board of trustees of the university resolutions were passed creating a college of law, college of pharmacy, university high school and extend ing the course of the college of liberal arts to four years, giving authority for the granting of the degree of bachelor of science or bachelor of arts upon the satisfactory completion of this course. The college of liberal arts had, indeed,
been legally constituted since 1911, but no particular effort had been made to attract students. The president of the University of Porto Rico states that the act of 12 March 1903 vested authority in a board of trustees composed of 11 members; that the bond of connection between this new university and the Department of Education was preserved through the appointment of the commissioner of educa tion as president of the board of trustees and chancellor of the university, ex officio; and that ((except for this connection, the university is an independent and separate department of the insular The same act gave the board of trustees power to establish new departments and the right to confer degrees. Subsequently the number of members of the board of trustees was reduced from 11 to 7, the governor appointing four while the remaining three, namely, the commissioner of education, the treasurer of Porto Rico and the speaker of the house of delegates, are ex officio members. The work of that department known as the col lege of agriculture and mechanic acts, at Mayaguez, was begun in 1912. Consult Annual Reports of the Governor of Porto Rico (in Annual Reports, War Department, Washing ton).