Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 219]

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216

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[December 15

should be effected through that office and not through the Director of Public Relations. This would bring the placement work in intimate relationship with student counselling, where it belongs. Such work in graduate placement as this office will be able to do, will be concerned primarily with facilitating the placement work of schools and colleges which should carry the primary responsibility for it. T h e titles of Dean of Men and Dean of Women should be changed to Assistant Deans of Students. 5. T h e position of Vice-President of Public Relations should be changed to that of Director. This is much more in keeping with the character of the position than is the proposed title. 6. T h e Executive Dean of Chicago Colleges should be directly responsible to the President, but a functional relationship should be maintained between the Business Manager of the University and the Business Manager in the Chicago Colleges. T h e same relationship should hold in the case of the Registrar and the Examiner and Recorder; the University Librarian and the Librarian of Departmental Libraries; the Director of Public Information and the Public Relations Representative; and the Dean of Students and the individual in charge of student relations in the Chicago Colleges. 7. Instead of making the provision for athletics suggested in the Report, it would be better to transfer these activities to the Department of Physical Education. On that point the argument used in the Report is specious. 8. T h e recommendation for a divisional organization of the College of Liberal Arts is a good one and should have careful study by the faculty and Administration. It is suggested that it be carried one step further and include the graduate work conducted by the departments of that college. This would do away with the necessity of having a graduate school, as the divisions, schools, and colleges would be responsible for both undergraduate and graduate work. If this suggestion were accepted, it would give the University a more effective organization than the present one, or than the one suggested in the Report. T h e acceptance of this organization would make the following officers responsible to the Vice-President of Education and Research: Director of Professional Schools, Dean of Engineering, Dean of Agriculture, Director of Libraries, Director of University Publications, and Deans of Divisions (of which there might be four or five). This would be a much more workable span of control than the one proposed in t h e Report. I think the Report is weak in the following respects: 1. All too frequently it makes generalizations concerning weaknesses of the University without supporting evidence (p. o, 2nd par.; p. 23, 1st par.; p. 26, 1st par.; p. 33, 3rd p a r . ) . On the other hand, the Administrative Review usually does little more than deny the statements made in the Report. 2. T h e Report has been couched too largely in the terms of the business world, and as a result it would be difficult to get a university administration to accept its recommendations even if they were sound. T h e present administrative organization may have been adequate for the institution a generation ago. In that time, however, the University has changed from essentially a college to one of the largest higher institutions in the country. T h e adjustment of the administrative procedures of the University to the growth in size and the extension of its programs of education and research has evidently lagged. T h e Report is an attempt to indicate some of the changes that in the judgment of the survey staff are needed if the administrative organization is to be geared to the present-day purposes of the institution. There is much of value to be obtained from the Report, but judging from the temper of the reply made by the Administration there is danger that its help will not be utilized.

II. SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS

T h e following paragraphs deal with only a few of the questions that should have consideration. In many instances the Report and the Review are not complete enough to allow judgments to be passed on the validity of the recommendations. Page numbers in parenthesis, introducing these paragraphs, refer to the Report unless the Review is specified.