Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1880 [PAGE 185]

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183

MEETING OF THE BOAED OP TEUSTEES, SEPTEMBEE, 1879.

The Board met in the University Parlor, on Tuesday, September V, 1879, at 3 o'clock P. M. Present—Messrs. Cobb, Gardner, Mason, Scott, and Treasurer Bunn. A letter from Mr. McLean was read by the Secretary, informing the Board that sickness in his family would prevent attendance at this meeting. No quorum being present, the Board adjourned till 8 o'clock Wednesday morning.

SECOND DAY'S SESSION. The Board met as by adjournment. Present—Messrs. Cobb, Gardner, Millard, Mason and Scott. Absent—Governor Cullom, Messrs. Byrd, Conkling, Fountain and McLean. The record of last meeting of the Board was read and approved, as also was the record of the meeting of the Executive Committee of June 7, 1879. The following paper from Dr. J. M. Gregory, was read by the Secretary, and ordered to be placed on file:

To the Honorable Trustees of the Illinois Industrial University: GENTLEMEN:—The ocean that rolls between me and the University does not diminish my interest in its affairs, nor my solicitude for its prosperity. I shall regret my absence from your coming meeting as it will prevent my rendering the ordinary assistance which I have always striven to lend to your important deliberations. Allow me to take the occasion to express my own profound sense of the value of the gratuitous labors which you so generously render the State in the case of this, its chief institution of learning. As no one knows better than myself, the difficulties which surround you, and the constant succession of embarrassments and obstacles which you are obliged to encounter and overcome, so no one can better appreciate the generous public spirit which leads you to devote so much of valuable time and still mqre valuabl * effort, to the charge which the State imposes upon you. Let me hope that the continued prosperity and growth of the institution whose destinies you guide, may continue in the future, as in the past, to give you that satisfaction and reward which the State otherwise fails to afford you. If in any case myself or my colleagues shall, in our solicitude for 'he University, and in our deep sense of its needs, seem unmindful of the difficulty of your labors, and shall urge, too strenuously, our wishes, or our wants, let it not be supposed that we forget the responsibility under which you act, or doubt, in the least, the generosity or wisdom of your councils and your plans. Posterity will certainly recognize the value of your work, and repay it with gratitude and praise.

THE GREAT WANT.

All observation and reflection impress upon me the urgent necessity there is for an increase in the teaching force of the University. This is really its greatest need. Whether compared with the best institutions of our own country, or the yreat universities here in Europe, or considered in relation to the time, aims and uses of a university, it must be evident to every intelligent mind that we cannot properly do the work planned for us, nor