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Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944
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1072 BOARD OF TRUSTEES quested an item in its legislative budget to enable the University to build men's residence halls on the campus. Suffice it to say that money requested for the dormitories was not appropriated by the General Assembly. In 1935 the Board of Trustees established the University of Illinois Foundation. . . . objectives may be summarized as follows: (1) to assist in developing the facilities of the University by encouraging gifts . . . , (2) to receive, hold and administer such gifts with the primary object of serving purposes other than those for which the State of Illinois ordinarily makes sufficient appropriations, (3) to act as the business agent of the Board of Trustees of the University in the performing of other services specified by them, and (4) to undertake such other enterprises as tend to promote the interests and welfare of the University." By using this Foundation as a holding corporation, the University negotiated loans from life insurance companies, secured federal grants-in-aid, and gifts from the alumni and without appropriations from the General Assembly; in spite of opposition, it successfully financed men's residence halls, the student-faculty-alumni Union building at Urbana, and the student-faculty-alumni Union building in Chicago. The erection of these buildings was far more significant than the mere additional accommodations they provided might imply. Previous to the opening of the men's dormitories, the University found it exceedingly difficult to set up and maintain minimum standards to be met by rooming houses in order for them to be placed on the approved list of the University. The opening of the dormitories provided these standards and gave a leverage for their enforcement. Thus the provision of University residences for men resulted in a general improvement of living conditions in the entire community. The Commission feels that the administration of the University has accomplished much in the direction of solving the student housing problem and recommends that the University work toward the establishment of a dormitory system which will more nearly take care of the housing needs of all its men and women students. The opening of the Illini Union Building also had a broad "See University of Illinois Annual Register, 1941-42, p. 425. [54—A.C.E. Report]
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