Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1884 [PAGE 203]

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BOARD MEETING—DECEMBER 11, 1883.

The Board met at 3 P. M. in the University parlor. Present—Governor Hamilton, Trustees Bennett, Earle, McLean, Millard, Paden, Pearman and Postel. Absent—Trustees Follansbee, Cobb and Landrigan. Trustees Earle and Postel presented their credentials, were duly sworn, and took their seats as members of the Board. The record of the meeting of September 4, 1883, was read and approved. The Regent then presented his report, which was read and received :

To the Trustees of the Illinois Industrial University: GENTLEMEN—The opening of the present year's work presents items for regret and for congratulation. All concerned would be glad to see present at the University a larger number of students. The number for the term is 239 men; 64 women; 303 total. This is less by about 13 per cent, than last year, though it does not differ materially from the number two years ago at the same time. The reduction in numbers is found to be chiefly in the preparatory class. There is a larger proportion of technical students as compared with those in literary courses, than in any previous year. The new students are well prepared, so that there have been fewer conditioned and fewer rejected than usual, without any weakening in the strength of the examinations. It is believed that the general standards of scholarship in the University are gradually improving. The Faculty has never been more united, competent or efficient than at present. In the various departments, with scarcely one exception, good work is done; and in some the results are exceptionally commendable. The changes which have occurred have all resulted favorably in maintaining or increasing efficiency. Lieut. Charles McClure, the military instructor, has taken up with zeal and discretion the work left by Lieut. Wood. Miss Hall is gathering the scattered strands of the work which, in her department, has been in a measure neglected for the past three years. The lady you appointed as assistant to Prof. Snyder was found to have made an engagement elsewhere, and, with the sanction of the Executive Committee. Miss Mary E. Darrow. a graduate of Allegheny College, in Meadville, Pa., was appointed to the vacancy. Prof. Snyder speaks with high praise of her work. On the very day of the opening of the fall term, Prof. Cecil H. Peabody, Assistant in Mechanical Engineering, left to accept an appointment, very complimentary to himself, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston. His abrupt departure, leaving five classes unprovided with instruction, caused me much anxiety. With the approval of the Executive Committee, an effort was made to secure aid from the corps of engineers in the United States Navy, which resulted in the detail of Assistant Engineer Arthur T. Woods, a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, employed at the time of his detail in the Bureau of Naval Construction at the Department in Washington. The detail, as made by Secretary Chandler, was a compliment to the State of Illinois and to its University. The gentleman appointed reported at once, and brings skill and efficiency to his work. I have engaged that he shall receive from the University $400 per annum in lieu of subsistence and quarters, for which I ask your approval.

ELOCUTION.

Much anxiety is expressed among the students for instruction in elocution. The subject presents many difficulties. The work cannot be satisfactorily provided for unless some arrangement can be made for a resident instructor who shall be here during the year. It does not appear that the funds of the University will warrant the employment of