Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1926 [PAGE 554]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1926]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

SSI

R E P O R T O N SULLIVAN RADIO STATION (27) Professor White informs m e that all parties agreed on the location of the radio towers and the studio at the south end of our athleticfield,and I approved that location accordingly. The distance between towers is to be 375 feet and they are to be 150 feet high. Work is now under way. This report w a s received for record.

PURCHASE OF KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA PROPERTY

(28) In accordance with your instructions I have made the best inquiry I could into the advisability of the purchase by the University of the property owned by the Kappa Kappa G a m m a sorority on the northwest corner of Wright and Daniel Streets, Champaign, and submit this as m y report: There are three points of view from which the matter may be considered. One is the desirability or necessity of purchasing this property in order to keep business houses from further encroachment on the University district, lying as it does just across the street from the Administration Building and adjacent to the Davenport Residence Hall. The second is the desirability of purchasing the property to add to our women's residence hall accommodations. The third is its desirability as an extension of the campus for future buildings. The purchase of this property alone would not prevent the further erection of business buildings in this block of land. One has already been erected on the southwest corner. To prevent this contingency in the whole block it will be necessary for the University to acquire the Rolfe property, three other lots with houses on them, and the new business building on the southwest corner. There is no assurance that the University could get all of this land at a price that it should properly pay and it is certain that many years must elapse before it can get it at all. If the point be that it is desirable to keep a business house off the Wright Street frontage only, the answer is that the same point may be made with reference to the next block south lying directly across Wright Street from the Woman's Building and also of the second block south. The land adjustments made south of Armory Avenue in the past few years are sufficient, or will be as soon as three or four more lots in College Place are purchased, to meet the University's necessary building program for many years to come. The policy of the Board, when the Board last formally expressed itself on the matter, was a repetition of the views expressed formally or informally at various times by your Board in the pastfifteenor twenty years. That policy is that owing to the narrowness of the University campus from University Avenue south to the Auditorium, the University inevitably must in time move southward. The recent development of the new quadrangles south of the Auditorium is in accordance with this policy. To purchase the land under consideration would be a departure from this policy and would require a larger expenditure for a given area of land. Again it is not clear what advantage would accrue to the University from owning this whole block of land unless it can also secure the block immediately to the south facing Wright Street. But the acquisition of these is out of the question. In favor of the purchase of this property are these arguments: 1. It would widen the campus by just so much, north of Daniel Street. In the course of twenty years, possibly less, the University might get all the block at a price. I have reason to think that the University could secure, if your Board thought wise, an agreement that the University should have thefirstrightof purchase of the Rolfe property when the family is through with the property at a price then to be agreed on or to be determined by competitive bids. This would give us the assurance of being owners for University purposes of more than onenaif of the block at a price. As to the suggestion that it would be advisable to purchase this property in order to add to our women's residence hall facilities, several points need to be considered: