Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1898 [PAGE 53]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1896]

PROCEEDINGS OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

53

The legislature should be asked, immediately upon assembling, to pass an emergency appropriation bill restoring to the sum appropriated for general operating expenses the amount taken therefrom to repair Chemical Laboratory so that it could be -temporarily used, and to make good the loss upon the chemicals and apparatus. The amount, as stated by the business manager, as $14,461.13. ' The following items should, in the judgment of the committee, be provided for in the general university appropriation bill: 1. It is imperative that provision shall be made for a new central heating plant, as the present one is altogether inadequate for the increasing needs. The new buildings can not be warmed by it. It is old and a portion of the boilers are unfit for use and never used except in emergencies. It is a menace to University Hall. It seems advisable to the committee that when a new central heating plant is constructed provision shall be made'in it for housing the electrical apparatus now in the basement of University Hall, thus removing the menace which that plant is to the safety of the large building. For this purpose $85,000.00 is necessary. 2. The burning of Chemical Laboratory in August last creates the necessity for a new structure to take its place. The chemistry department is one of the most important in the University. Indeed it may be said that it is of more consequence than that of any other university in the west. The old building has become inadequate to its needs. Following the suggestion of the Board, made at the time the building was patched up for temporary use, we recommend that the legislature be asked to make provision for a new building. The committee is of the opinion that $75,000.00 will be needed for the •structure and that $20,000 more will be needed for furnishing and equipping it. 3. The University has long stood in need of an agricultural building. The need is so apparent, and the interest so great and so representative of the people of Illinois, that there is no necessity for arguing it. We think a separate building should be erected with an attached or adjacent structure in which maybe carried on a school, teaching by practical demonstration all of the various processes of dairying. These two structures together can doubtless be erected for $80,000. 4. We recommend the appropriation of the sum of $20,000.00 for reconstructing the old Chemical Laboratory. Although the interior of that building was entirely destroyed, the outer walls were left intact, and a new and substantial roof has been placed upon it and the interior quickly fixed up for temporary use. A moderate sum of money would reconstruct this building so as to make it altogether worthy of use for some other needed university purpose. The purpose to which it seems best adapted, and which is most pressing, is that of a women's building, and we are of the opinion, that the sum needed would admirably adapt it to that end. The needs of the women's department are certainly great. It is in contemplation that there shall be a dean of that department appointed at an early day. There is necessity for an office and meeting rooms, as well as for a gymnasium, toilet accommodations, etc. The number of women students at the University is less than it should be, and may readily be increased if proper provision is made for them. We think that the interest is of so much consequence that all friends of the University are agreed that we-need a distinctive'building devoted to the interests of the women students. 5. We can not with propriety longer delay the erection of a men's gymnasium. Military hall is now devoted to gymnasium purposes. It has no proper conditions for a gymnasium and its use as such materially interferes with military drill and instruction. Our own professor of military science has complained about this, and at his recent visit to the University Major General Wesley Merritt sharply called attention to it. We have a large number of young men whose health the University is bound to conserve. They need every facility for physical training and exercise, as well as accommodations for toilet and bathing purposes. A building could be suitably constructed, with apparatus, baths, etc., for $60,000. We think it should be asked for.