Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1878 [PAGE 23]

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removal, and the sacrifice of some part of their property invested here. And it is quite possible that you may be able to fill with cheaper men, the few places which will be left vacant. TAVO at least, of the faculty, have already been invited to other places, at equal if not greater compensation than they now receive. The question may prove a vital one. W e cannot well afford a policy which will expose us to having our best men picked off by rival institutions. I t is doubtless the duty of the board to see to it that no money is squandered unnecessarily in paying extravagant or needless salaries, and I respectfully recommend that a committee be appointed to inquire whether the present salaries paid to teachers or any of them, are unusual or extravagant, and what reductions, if any, can be made without detriment to the best interests of the University. If the salaries cannot be safely reduced to such extent as to bring them within the diminished income of the University, will it not be the duty of the board to lay this fact before the legislature of the state that the representatives of the people may have the opportunity to save from harm, if in their wisdom it is necessary, as Michigan and Wisconsin have done in similar case. Will the people hold us guiltless if we allow the fair fame and the bright prospects of an institution, which belongs to them and not to us, to be sullied or blighted without any appeal to their representatives for aid V If necessity compels a diminution of salaries I shall ask that the reduction shall begin with that of the regent, not because it is larger than is paid, by other institutions of like grade, but because he will prefer to see his own pay lessened 20 or 25 per cent, rather than see the already too meager compensation of his associates lessened.

APPROPRIATIONS, ETC.

1 lay before you papers from several of the departments asking for appropriations for needed apparatus, or current expenditures, as follows: 1. From Prof. Morrow and the head farmer for additional tools and seeds, &c. The requests for the replacement of the line stock of several breeds, I believe to be especially important, if the agricultural college is to be maintained with any degree of efficiency or popularity. I concur also heartily in the asking for the appropriation for experiments in dairying. Our agricultural illustration should be made broader, and ought especially to include all those branches of farming and farm manufactures which may be made profitable in this state. T h e people may justly ask this at our hands. 2 Prof. Burrill asks renewal of appropriation for arboration, for seeds etc. and for lawn mowers,—they seem necessary. I believe all the requests of the horticultural department are reasonable and ought to be met, as far as your funds permit. 3. Prof. Taft asks the re-appropriation of so much of last year's appropriation as was not expended. I t is to be hoped that the appropriation asked from the legislature for the natural history cabinets will be made, in which case this department will be provided for. If it is not made, then the request of Prof. Taft ought to be granted. 4. Prof. Robinson's report lays before you the wants of the machine shop, and the physical laboratory. He also calls attention to the charges made for work done ostensibly for him, but really for the