Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 189]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

186

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[November 27

2. Many of the specific studies of business and physical plant operations have been isolated from their educational functions, and the recommendations based on them, therefore, a r e sometimes subject to serious question and sometimes quite impossible to convert into action. 3. A considerable number of findings in the Report and of the recommendations suggested by the findings have been actively under consideration by the Administration. T h e Administration appreciates, therefore, the confirmation of its own judgment about many of these matters. 4. T h e Report speaks of "a fully developed plan of organization." It should be obvious, however, that no one could write a fully developed plan for a university which is changing and growing in its relations to students and to the public. T h e essential character of the institution cannot be confined to any plan, therefore, which is inexorably fixed in its lines of authority. Its organization must meet changing needs and situations. Flexibility in its developing rather than in its "fully developed" plan of organization will be absolutely imperative in the post-war period ahead. Action: In view of these considerations, the recommendations for action noted above should be confirmed by the Board of Trustees, and the President of the University should be directed to continue and to intensify, with the aid of other administrative officers and the Bureau of Institutional Research, studies of administrative organization, and report on them from time to time to the Board as he may consider appropriate, looking toward an early realization of the avowed purpose of the Report, viz., the highest possible degree of efficiency in University administration which is compatible with the main functions of the University. M r . F o r n o f p r e s e n t e d t h e f o l l o w i n g r e s o l u t i o n , a n d m o v e d its adoption. Whereas, President Willard was instructed by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois on December 16, 1041, to have a study of the business operations of the University made by Booz, Fry, Allen, and Hamilton; And whereas, this study has been completed and submitted by the President to each member of the Board in advance of this present meeting, together with a detailed analysis of each of the recommendations made by Booz, Fry, Allen, and Hamilton; And whereas, one of the principal recommendations of the report is that the Board of Trustees should "not be burdened with administrative matters or assume responsibility for operating decisions" but, on the other hand, should "select a President, support him with capable key assistants, and entrust to him and require that he assume full responsibility for the administration of the University"; And whereas, the President of the University of Illinois has made the following final recommendation concerning action to be taken by the Trustees on the Booz, Fry, Allen, and Hamilton proposals—"Action: In view of these considerations the recommendations for action noted above should be confirmed by the Board of Trustees, and the President of the University should be directed to continue and to intensify, with the aid of other administrative officers and the Bureau of Institutional Research, studies of administrative organization, and report on them from time to time to the Board as he may consider appropriate, looking toward an early realization of the avowed purpose of the Report, viz., the highest possible degree of efficiency in University administration which is compatible with the main functions of the University"; Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Board of Trustees concurs in the foregoing recommendation contained in the Booz, Fry, Allen, and Hamilton report as to the duties of the Board of Trustees, and also concurs in the recommendations of the President of the University as to the future handling of the Booz, Fry, Allen, and Hamilton proposals. A f t e r full d i s c u s s i o n , M r . F o r n o f ' s r e s o l u t i o n w a s a d o p t e d , b y t h e following vote: Aye, M r . A d a m s , M r . Cleary, M r . Fornof, M r . Jensen, M r . K a r r a k e r , D r . M e y e r ; no, M r . D a v i s , M r s . Grigsby, M r . Livingston ; absent, M r . Green, M r . Wieland.