Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1890 [PAGE 74]

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PROCEEDINGS O F BOARD O F TRUSTEES.

77

The following report was submitted b y Mr. Bullard, c h a i r m a n of t h e Committee on Buildings and Grounds, upon t h e petition of t h e y o u n g ladies of t h e University in regard t o a room for calisthenic exercises a n d a n i n s t r u c t o r :

CALISTHENICS.

To the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. GENTLEMEN : Your Committee on Buildings and Grounds desires to report on the communication which was referred from the lady students of t h e University- asking for apartments and an instructor in calisthenics. Your Committee, not being conversant with the uses of all the rooms of the buildings and not knowing whether the room desired by t h e ladies could be spared without an undue crowding of the work of other and regular departments, nor whether the physical training asked for was needed for the highest education of the young ladies, asked the assistance of the Faculty in determining these questions. The report of the Faculty is appended and made a part of this report. While we are desirous in every way to advance the interests of all our students, yet we feel so limited in means and buildings a t t h e present time t h a t we deem i t advisable not to undertake to establish t h e line of study and exercise asked for until we can do so in a thorough way.

S. A. BULLARD, {PoTylTnittpp G. B . SHAWHAN, \ committee.

To the Ti-ustees of the University of Illinois. GENTLEMEN: The Faculty has considered the questions referred to it by a committee of Trustees, of which Mr. S. A. Bullard is chairman, and presents the folowing in reply to those questions: 1. If the University were in possession of ample endowment sufficient for all purposes which might seem desirable, without doubt the establishment of a department of "physical culture" fully equipped with apartments and apparatus, and under the direction of expert medical authority, would be one of those desirable purposes. But it can hardly be said t h a1t such equipment, or the training which i t would provide for, is "necessary' to the highest culture. 2. There is no apartment in either the main or chemical building t h a t is suitable for such purpose, or can be spared from other engagements. 3. There is a t present no person on the force of instruction who could undertake the charge of this work. I t may be said, farther, that the University has pass%d through an experience of this kind. When a new thing, a class in calisthenic instruction was popular, i t soon became wearisome, even under a teacher admitted to be well skilled for t h e work. After her resignation, t h e class was continued until t h e larger part of the young ladies had been relieved by positive requests from mothers or physicians, and then the subject was dropped. In conclusion it is proper to add t h a t the general health of the young ladies in attendance a t the University is excellent. T h e exceptions are rare, and these are mostly of young women who live a t home in Champaign or Urbana, and who are unwisely encouraged or allowed by their parents to undertake t h e exhaustive duties of society while prosecuting their studies a t the University. Were the young ladies, or any of them, restricted within t h e limits often imposed in boarding schools, the needs of t h e case would be quite different. Kespectfully submitted, by order of the Faculty,

J. D. CRAWFORD, Secretary.