Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 867]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

864

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[February 24

FEED L. STEINHOFF, Brick and Clay Record, 59 East Van Buren Street, Chicago. FRITZ WAGNER, J R . , American T e r r a Cotta Corporation, Builders Building, Chicago. J. W. WRIGHT, Owens-Illinois Glass Company, Alton.

On motion of Mr. Fornof, this committee was appointed as recommended.

APPROPRIATION FOR INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM IN PHYSICS (6) A recommendation that (1) an appropriation of $2,500 be made from the General Reserve Fund to the Department of Physics to supplement its operating budget for the current academic year to provide special tutoring classes for army trainees; (2) supplementary compensation to members of the staff be authorized for services rendered in addition to those required of them under their regular staff appointments; such compensation will be paid on recommendation of the H e a d of the Department and approved by the Coordinator of Specialized Training Programs and the Comptroller. O n m o t i o n of M r . J e n s e n , t h e s e r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s w e r e a d o p t e d , a n d the appropriation w a s made, by the following vote: Aye, M r . Davis, M r . Fornof, M r . Jensen, M r . Livingston, D r . Luken, M r . McKelvey, D r . Meyer, M r . Nickell; no, n o n e ; absent, M r . Green, M r s . Grigsby, Mr. Karraker. APPROPRIATION TO THE SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION (7) T h e Director of the School of Physical Education has requested authority to inaugurate a program of research in physical fitness. T h e experiences of Army and Navy surgeons in examining men for the armed services, and other studies, have revealed alarming numbers of fundamental deficiencies in physical fitness, and particularly among young men, a large number of whom are entering adult life unconditioned and unmotivated to maintain physical fitness. Statistics indicate that about fifty per cent of the young men have been rejected from the armed services; some ninety-five per cent have failed to meet aviation requirements, and only about four out of twenty men of forty years of age have passed army health standards. A large proportion of those accepted for service have been found deficient in swimming ability, energy capacity, and athletic ability according to reasonable standards. T h e following statement in support of their proposal has been submitted by the Director and Professor T. K. Cureton, who will conduct the research program: "Expanding programs of physical fitness have created many new problems in the area of health, physical education, and recreation. Many of these problems need to be studied and analyzed under the controls and with the methods used in a laboratory equipped to study exercises and their relationships to organic efficiency, physique, and health in general. "A great variety of dynamic programs have recently come into existence, largely based on the supposition that the exercise programs will make a profound contribution to present wartime efficiency and long-time health of the participants. T h e nature of the effects of the program should be studied, the amounts of improvement should be measured, and the wise limitation of the exercises should be established. It hardly seems reasonable that such studies should be made by groups having only a secondary interest to the dynamic work but should be made by the keenest research workers in the physical education field. Now is the time to develop the facilities for this work, because the spearhead of advance for the physical education of the future will be in this physical fitness area. The need for immediate action is apparent if the School of Physical Education is to take advantage of the situation. "Preliminary studies at the University of Illinois School of Physical Education indicate that research in the dynamic phases of physical fitness has tremendous importance. Some worth-while results have been obtained already, but