Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1964 [PAGE 1290]

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1964]

U N I V E R S I T Y OF I L L I N O I S

1245

newer instructional resources such as television, programed instruction, films, graphic presentation, and other audio-visual techniques. The Office of Instructional Resources will assist faculty members in the use of these media and in evaluating their effectiveness. In addition to studies of instructional methods and course content, the new Office will sponsor research on the relationship of academic achievement and choice of_ vocation to the characteristics of students (geographic, educational, psychological, and socio-economic), to characteristics of instructors, and to characteristics of the extracurricular environment. The Director of the Office of Instructional Resources at Urbana-Champaign will administer that Office under the general supervision of the Executive VicePresident and Provost. H e will also have University-wide staff responsibility for coordinating such functions on all campuses of the University, and for advising the Executive Vice-President and Provost concerning policies and plans in this area. It is recommended also that Professor Charles J. Mclntyre, at present Di-ector of the Office of Instructional Television, be named Director of the Office of Instructional Resources at Urbana-Champaign, with the additional responsibilities just described. I concur. O n m o t i o n of M r . J o h n s t o n , these r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s w e r e a p p r o v e d . CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE STUDIES (16) In consultation with the departments concerned, the Acting Dean and the Executive Committee of the Graduate College recommend that there be established in the Graduate College a Center for International Comparative Studies. The Center will supplement programs previously established and for which funds have been provided in state appropriations for the current biennium (1963-64). T h e earlier programs and the new Center will also be supported over a period of five years by a grant received from the Ford Foundation. The purpose of the proposed Center will be to provide a framework within the University for stimulating and supporting comparative research of a functional and problem-oriented nature along cross-cultural, cross-national, and crossregional lines. Its central function will be to develop means of encouraging such research and criteria for supporting it, including appropriate arrangements for released time for faculty research and for financing overseas travel for research scholars. Preference for support will be given to research programs that involve the training of graduate students. A detailed description of the functions of the Center is submitted herewith and a copy is being filed with the Secretary of the Board for record. The officers on the three campuses concerned have been consulted. The Director of International Programs and the Executive Vice-President and Provost concur in the recommendation. I recommend approval. O n m o t i o n of M r s . W a t k i n s , t h i s r e c o m m e n d a t i o n w a s a p p r o v e d . CENTER FOR INSTRUCTIONAL RESEARCH AND CURRICULUM EVALUATION (17) The College of Education recommends that the name of its present Office of Educational Testing be changed to "Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum Evaluation," effective September 1, 1964. The new name would denote more accurately the interests and activities of the staff members of the Office of Educational Testing. Its functions have always been broader in scope than educational testing per se, and the proposed designation would emphasize the major purposes for which educational and psychological tests are used in educational research. The proposed Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum Evaluation would have a relatively small permanent staff — as the Office of Educational Testing now has — but it would have the cooperation of many faculty members in departments throughout the College of Education, and in other colleges, who are interested in curricular innovation or in the improvement of teaching. The Center would provide the technical assistance needed for testing the effectiveness