Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1890 [PAGE 48]

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PROCEEDINGS OF BOARD O F TRUSTEES.

51

Deoember 31, 1888. Accepted the resignation of Professor John C. Jackson. Authorized t h e employment of Mr. A. G. Manns in t h e department of chemistry for t h e remainder of t h e current college year, and the payment to him for such service fifty dollars per month until t h e first day of July in addition to the pay which he now receives from the Experiment Station. Jan. 16, 1889. Authorized payment of $31.20 for binding twelve volumes of Patent Office Reports. Jan. 22. Authorized the payment of $60 per month to G. B. McHugh, assistant in chemistry, until t h e end of the current college year. Jan. 26. Authorized the acceptance of t h e bid of A. C. McClurg & Co., for books and the purchase of books of them to t h e amount of $545.88; and farther authorized the Regent " t o purchase the necessary books not included in the above list at t h e best terms possible and to report the same to the Board." The following item was omitted from the last report: Sept. 24/ 1888. Authorized purchase of books of E. Steiger & Co., of New York, to amount of $28.20. Respectfully submitted,

S. M. M I L L A R D , J

EMORY COBB,

[ Executive Committee. •

CHAS. B E N N E T T , )

Mr. Bennett, chairman of the special committee previously a p pointed to consider and report upon the matter of certificates and upon " graduation with a certificate," presented the following report:

REPORT OF T H E COMMITTEE ON GRADUATION W I T H A C E R T I F I C A T E , E T C .

This Committee has been instructed to consider and report upon t h e recommendations of the Regent concerning the general subject of " Graduation with a Certificate" made to the Trustees a t their meeting in September last, which subject also includes the question asked by the Faculty at the last June meeting, concerning t h e scope of t h e certificate itself. Your committee finds the law concerning the issuance of certificates to be as follows: " T h e Trustees, on recommendation of a majority of t h e Faculty, may authorize the Kegent of the University to issue certificates of scholarship under the seal of t h e University, to any student of good moral character, who shall have been in attendance not less than one year, and shall have completed satisfactorily the studies of the year, which certificate shall set forth t h e precise attainments, as ascertained by special examinations, in the several branches of learning studied by such student during his attendance in the University." [Law of 1867, Sec. 10.] The conditions on which a certificate may be granted are, at least one year's residence at the University, t h e one year being reasonably presumed to mean the recognized collegiate year; good moral character, and satisfactory scholarship; t h e latter to be set forth by grades upon t h e subjects studied, as found by examinations. The law gives no authority for issuing any form of certificate other than t h i s ; nor does it authorize the certification of attainment in any subject studied by the student while he was not in attendance at the University. I t may be urged t h a t the law does not forbid either of these things. But the same law did not forbid the conferring of degrees. Y e t it was properly held t h a t the government of t h e University had, under this law, no authority to confer degrees, and legislative sanction was invoked and obtained before either the Faculty or the Trustees assumed t h a t power. I n this respect, a t least, it was conceded t h a t the law did not permit what it did not specify.