Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1880 [PAGE 252]

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250

MEETING OF THE BOABD OF TEUSTEES, SEPTEMBEE, 1880.

The Board met at the University parlor at 3:30 P. M. on Sep14th, 1880. Present—Messrs Cobb, Gardner, McLean, Millard and Fountain. Absent—Governor Cullom, Messrs Byrd, Mason and Scott. The minutes of the June and July meetings were read and approved. The Eegent pro tern, then submitted the following report; which was read and received:

REGENT'S REPORT. To the Trustees of the Illinois Industrial University: GENTLEMEN:—Before I proceed to consider the topics which are to be laid before you r honorable body in this my first official report, I have to express my profound acknowl" edgments for the compliment you have paid in entrusting to me the Regency of this University, until you shall have chosen to place its responsibilities in other and abler hands. But for every expression of confidence and encouragement which I have received from yourselves, from my colleagues of the Faculty, and from the students, I should shrink from assuming the duties of this position even temporarily. Until the time, which should not be remote, when you will make a more suitable and a permanent choice, I shall earnestly endeavor so to discharge this trust, that the interests of the University may not suffer.

THE COEPS OF INSTEUCTION

needs no encomium from me. It includes learned, accomplished, and tried Professors and tutors, deficient only in numerical strength to meet the demands made upon them by growing numbers of students, and a variety of courses of study. The corps is too small for the duty and the deficit is made up by the painstaking and self-denying overwork of those who feel that their reputations and their lives are at stake. The process of depletion is so gradual that possibly the fact has been overlooked. At the end of the year, in June, 1878, eight persons were employed, who have since vacated their positions: viz. Dr. Gregory, Professors Webb, Robinson and Allen, and Instructors Baker, Clark, Wild and Taft. In these places are found now only Baker vice Webb, Peabody vice Robinson and Sondericker vice Clark. The other five are vacant, and their duties have been distributed to others of the Faculty, or not provided for. It is true that the names of certain courses of study have been suppressed, but the courses still remain, and their work is done as before. As no one could have said that the force two years since was unnecessarily large, it must appear that the University is notably short-handed now. The closing of the classes of the Preparatory year at the end of the current Academic year will relieve this difficulty in a measure, but for this year these students are with us, and while they are here they are entitled to the competent instruction we promise in our circulars to the public. It is hardly in my province to suggest to you a solution of this whole problem, since so much of it depends upon the disposition you will make of the Regency, and of the line of instruction hitherto connected with it. For the present, it has been arranged that the Historical part of that work shall be undertaken by Prof. Crawford, and the Philosophical part by myself. I have not found that any authority has been given to the Regent, or to any other officer, to provide for the work of the preparatory class in the term now beginning. To provide for the emergency, I have made the following arrangements, subject to your approval: That the class in Bookkeeping shall be taught by Mr. James G. Allison, a member of the Senior class; the classes in Physiology by Mr. Chas. I. Hayes; and the classes in Algebra by Lieut. William T. Wood. If this arrangement meets your approval, it will be necessary that you provide for the suitable compensation of these gentlemen. Provision will thus be made for the current term, but I see at present no satisfactory way of providing for the classes in this department, or of furnishing competent and needful assistance to myself during the two terms to follow.