DESCRIBES EVOLUTION IN WORK OF BURSAR'S OFFICE

Mr. Mason will retire from office next June at the close of his thirty-fourth year of service in his present position.

The past thirty years have been a time of evolution in the functions as well as of increase in the size of the Bursar's Office. At the beginning the Bursar was responsible for supervision or for the actual execution of most of the activities in Cambridge departments which were outside the normal functions of the teachers. The library, some of the laboratories, the museums, the Botanic Garden and the Observatory were under the charge of the appropriate officers, but with these exceptions the Bursar's authority directly or otherwise covered mechanics, engineers and firemen, laborers and janitors. The Bursar assigned the seats in Sanders Theatre for the Commencement exercises, directed the preparation of the stage and was ready each Commencement morning at Massachusetts Hall with a duplicate list giving the order of the Commencement procession in case by any oversight the original list should be mislaid by the officer whose duty it was to form the procession. In conjunction with the Auditor, the Bursar determined three times in each year the price of board at Memorial. Besides assigning the dormitory rooms he rented stores, dwellings, and other University property to their tenants, and for more than twenty years was in charge of the accounts of his own office. From time to time most of these duties have been given into other hands by the appointment of new officers such as the University Marshal, the Inspector of Grounds and Buildings, the Assistant Comptroller in charge of accounts, and the Assistant Comptroller in charge of real estate, and the character of the office is now almost purely financial although the Bursar still assigns some of the dormitory rooms.

Various Locations for Office

In 1888 the Bursar's Office occupied the first floor of the brick addition at the rear of Wadsworth House, and the office force consisted of two clerks, one of whom was a youth under twenty. After a few years it was necessary to add the room on the second floor and in 1898 the office was removed to Dane Hall where for nearly twenty years it occupied the first floor of the easterly section of the building. A fire of unknown origin which occurred on February 3d, 1918, compelled the temporary removal of the office to the Varsity Club from which in September, 1919, it was again removed to its present temporary quarters on the Delta.

It would be tiresome to give in detail the many elements of expansion which have brought about the great increase in the financial operatitons of the University in the past three decades. One small department, the Veterinary School, has ceased to exist during that period, but all other departments have had considerable and in some cases very large increases in numbers of teachers, employes, students, and equipment; while entirely new departments such as the Schools of Architecture, Business, and Education, and the Press have come into existence. Last but not least may be added war prices and the increases of salaries made possible by the Endowment Fund.