Foreign Students Employed by the University

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees on June 15, 1948, the Board of Trustees addressed a previous proposal from May 21, 1948, regarding the issue of the employment of foreign students by the University. It was desired to permit [the employment of foreign students], subject to the regulations of the United States Immigration Service, when equally well-qualified American students were not available. With the onset of war, the University had moved on June 28, 1940 to restrict the employment of foreign students, however students of allied countries were permitted to be employed. It was said that [1]

the plain fact is that the University of Illinois increasingly is a leader in research, not only in the United States, but over the worldwe are building up slowly a reputation which Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have cultivated at great pains and at great cost[and] while doing so we have ourselves profited richly from the services of able [foreign] students

While the previous proposal had been rejected, the Board relented, and on June 15, 1948, the war-time rules with respect to the employment of foreigners were rescinded, and the President of the University was authorized to revert to the policies and practices in effect prior to June 28, 1940. [2]