Students now might think classes are difficult and professors are cranky, but they can count themselves lucky they didn't attend the University of Washington in the early 1900s.

Although the UW was only beginning to anchor its roots to become one of the premier colleges in the Northwest, the curriculum and expectations of students could by no means be defined as rudimentary.

So rigorous was the work that in the 1901 UW yearbook, the Tyee, a student anonymously explained a typical encounter with a professor:

"When for instance, you complain that the pressure of other work makes it hard for you to put more than four hours a day on chemistry, the look you get is glazed and very chill. There is evidently something lacking in you."

Even more daunting is one student's experience during a political science recitation:

"You fight desperately all the time, but you are helpless and are finally set down in a dejected state...or he [the professor] may not be in a playful mood, and seems fatigued with what you say. He sits back and smiles faintly, and then asks if anyone in the whole class knows anything."

Comparatively, the modern-day UW experience is much easier. There are aspects of the University in the 1900s that once looked significantly different from their modern-day counterparts.

"Students could rent a canoe and go out to Lake Washington, and the top floor of the canoe house was a dance floor," said John Bolcer, the UW archivist.

Unfortunately, like many other buildings on campus, the canoe house was eventually destroyed by fire.

Another aspect of University life in the early 1900s that is no longer present was Campus Day. Campus Days were literally single days devoted to working on the campus, and were viewed as days of bonding between students and faculty alike.

According to then-President Edmond S. Meany, "More trails were built, the natural theater was cleared, the track was improved and a bandstand was built...graduates [had] begun to return to inspect the work they helped to do while in the university."

Campus Days slowly but surely improved the campus because, although the University had been established for some 40 years, the UW's campus layout was much more rural than its current urban appearance.

"The campus was a lot more heavily rooted. It was much more like a forest," said Bolcer. "The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition got a lot of national attention. The direct result of the Exposition was the development and design of the University."

Tom Griffin, editor of the UW Alumni Association magazine, Columns, also marks the Alaska-Yukon Expedition as a major event for the University.

"The World's Fair in 1909, or the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition, was very important. A lot of the buildings that were used for the Exposition were given to the University," Griffin said.

After the UW was better-established, World War I began, which had a big impact on the school.

"During WWI, the Army and Navy had major training facilities on campus," Bolcer said.

Dorm rooms were turned into headquarters and hospitals, tents were set up all over the campus as barracks and common rooms became military dining halls.

The war had quite an impact on students as well.

According to the History of the University of Washington in the UW Special Collections, "Enrollment [at the UW] dropped by 30 percent by autumn quarter of 1918. Only 207 civilians were enrolled. More than 1,500 students and faculty were enrolled in military services."

Moreover, the student population at the UW was very diverse for its time. Not only were there many women who attended the University, but there was also a lot of ethnic diversity.

"William McDonald Austin became the first African American graduate in 1902. Lew Geate Kay, as far as we know, was the first Chinese graduate in 1909. Kay later went on to become a government official in China," Griffin said.

"The University was much more diverse than people would imagine. The UW has always been open to people no matter what their background was," he said.

Bear in mind, this was America in the 1900s — long before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Like fickle Husky fans of today, even in the 1900s the students at the UW seemed to be a bit skeptical about their pride for Husky football.

As one student put it in the 1900 Tyee, "To say that the...1899 football team was the best ever turned out by the varsity would be an injustice to those valiant warriors who have defended the purple and gold since the game of football was established in the Northwest."

Reach reporter Ae Jung Yoon at ajyoon@thedaily.washington.edu