Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1934 [PAGE 378]

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376

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[September 26

INTEREST ON FEDERAL FUNDS

(ig) At the meeting of the Board on June 6, 1933 (Minutes, page 227), the report of a ruling by the Comptroller General of the United States, requiring interest on federal funds turned over to such institutions as the University of Illinois to be paid into the United States Treasury, was referred to the Finance Committee, but in view of the suspension of interest payments on all funds in the University's depository, no further action has been taken. Before the crediting of interest on funds was stopped, there accrued on federal funds, subsequently to the date at which the ruling of the Comptroller General went into effect, the sum of $220.52 which has been set aside pending decision as to its disposal. The University Comptroller reports that federal officers are now calling for this interest. There is a question in the mind of the University Counsel whether the federal ruling is correct, and it would appear desirable that a ruling from the Attorney General should be had before any interest is paid over. On motion of M r . Barr, the following resolution was adopted: WHEREAS, The University of Illinois, as one of the Land Grant Colleges, has received funds from the Federal Government for a number of years to be expended for purposes specified in the various acts granting the same; and WHEREAS, prior to 1933, the United States Government has never asserted a right to, or claim on, any interest paid on deposits of federal funds thus allotted to the University; and WHEREAS, The Comptroller General of the United States has ruled that the institutions, including the University of Illinois, receiving funds from certain federal acts are legally obligated, under the acts granting the same, to refund to the United States Government any interest accruing and received on such funds; and WHEREAS, the correctness of this interpretation of the federal acts is not wholly clear and has been questioned by beneficiary institutions and States elsewhere ; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois that the University Counsel be instructed to prepare a memorandum upon the law and to transmit the same to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., with the request that the Secretary of Agriculture apply to the Attorney General of the United States for an opinion upon the question whether, under the various acts of Congress making appropriations of federal funds to the Land Grant Colleges, and particularly to the University of Illinois, the Board of Trustees is legally obligated to account to the United States Government for any interest received on such funds after the same have been paid to the University and deposited by the University in a bank or banks, pending expenditure thereof for the purposes designated in the applicable federal acts.

APPOINTMENT TO KATE NEAL KINLEY MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP

(20) A recommendation from the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship Committee that Mr. Arthur Bassin, 4613 North Kedzie Avenue, Chicago, be awarded the second Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship.

On motion of Mr. Trees, this award was made.

APPOINTMENTS TO E. A. WALLACE MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

(21) A report that the Board of Education of Havana, Illinois, has reappointed Messrs. Dale Huff and John Schulte as beneficiaries of the E. A. Wallace Memorial Scholarship for 1933-34.

This report was received for record.