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In reading an account, of the Municipal University of Louisville's centennial celebration [TIME, April 5], I note with disappointment that you fail to mention the Municipal University of Wichita, Kansas, as one of the nine municipally owned universities in the U. S., although the other eight are named.
For your information, the Municipal University of Wichita, a coeducational institution, was created by a referendum vote of the citizens of Wichita in April, 1926, and established around the nucleus of old Fairmount College, a Congregational school, founded in 1892.
The creation of a municipally owned university was accomplished under the leadership of Dr. John D. Finlayson, then president of Fairmount College and later chancellor of the University of Tulsa. From an enrollment of about 400 in 1927, the University of Wichita has grown rapidly, having an enrollment of over 1,500 in 1936. The equipment and plant have kept pace with this growth. . . .
The University's greatest distinction is its school of fine arts. Dean Thurlow Lieurance, famous composer of Indian music, composer of By the Waters of Minnetonka, The Minisa and others, is head of the school of fine arts.
Dr. W. M. Jardine, Secretary of Agriculture in former President Herbert Hoover's cabinet, is president of the University. Doctor Jardine was formerly president of Kansas State Agricultural College and served as U. S. minister to Egypt. His daughter, Ruth, attends the University of Wichita.
BYRON W. BEEBE
St. Louis, Mo.