Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1880 [PAGE 160]

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MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, MARCH, 1879.

The Board assembled in the University parlors, on Tuesday, March 11, 1879, at 8:30 P. M. Present: Messrs. Byrd, Fountain, Gardner, Mason, McLean, Millard, Pickrell and Scott. Absent: Governor Cullom, Messrs. Cobb and Brown. A dispatch was received from the President of the Board, Hon. E. Cobb, expressing his regrets at being prevented from attending this meeting. On motion of Mr. Gardner, Mr. J. H. Pickrell was nominated chairman. The oath of office was then administered to the newly appointed members, Messrs. Scott and Millard, by Judge Brown. The minutes of the last meeting were then read and approved. The Regent then read the following report:

REGENT'S REPORT.

To the Trustees of the Illinois Industrial

University:

MAECH 11, 1879.

GENTLEMEN: The occurrence of your twelfth annual meeting makes it my duty again to present you a statement of the condition of the University, and of the progress and wants of the several departments. As this meeting occurs in the midst of the College year, the statistics can only be given of the incomplete terms.

ATTENDANCE.

The number of students present during the fall term was: Men, 299; women, 67; total, 366. Winter: Men, 275; women, 67; total, 342. Total number of students enrolled this year, 399. The Class work of the present term, and the time employed by the several professors, instructors and assistants, are fully shown in the term reports herewith laid before you.

THE COLLEGE OF AGEICULTUKE.

The work in the two schools of this College, the School of Agriculture and the School of Horticulture, continues to progress favorably under the charge in chief of Professors Burrill and Morrow. The energy and industry shown by these gentlemen in their work give promise that these important schools will win more and more upon the attention of the great industrial classes, whose interests they seek to promote. The day will come when a stern necessity will drive our farmers to the study of more scientific methods of cultivation, and this College will secure the patronage it deserves. Even now, if its instructions could be brought home to our farmers, they would save hundreds from bankruptcy, and would increase the profits of agriculture to an extent which would repay to the State tenfold the cost of its maintenance. Prof. Morrow, with my hearty concurrence, has visited and addressed several meetings of agriculturists in different counties, and has laid before them the nature and value of the education provided here. I have also aided in this work. I believe you will approve these efforts, though they require an occasional absence from classes. The Farmers' Institute held during this term was the most successful of all those held under the auspices of the University. The attendance was large, the lecture rooms being often crowded during the lectures.