Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1900 [PAGE 72]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

52

UNIVERSITY O F I L L I N O I S . SUMMER SCHOOL.

[Jan.

13

T h e C o m m i t t e e on I n s t r u c t i o n m a d e t h e following r e p o r t with r e g a r d to a s u m m e r school:

CHICAGO, JANUARY 13, 1899.

To the Board of Trustees. "The following communication was referred to your Committee on Instruction at the last meeting of the Board (see page 28): December 13, 1898. President A. 3. JDarper. DEAR SIR:—On December 5th the University Faculty approved a report of a special committee favoring in general terms a course of summer instruction at the University, but recommending that plans and arrangemencsbe referred to the departments primarily concerned. This report was made after a very thorough canvass, including extensive correspondence with public school men in Illinois. From tabulated replies it appears that out of thirty-two county superintendents eighteen express the opinion that a summer term at the University is desirable, while six think there is little demand for it. Eighty out of one hundred city superintendents and high school principals heard from believe that a summer term would be attended by persons from their various localities. It was further ascertained by this committee that of eisrht hundred and forty-one teachers in our accredited high schools, three hundred and seventy five of whom are college graduates, only twenty-two are from the University of Illinois. It further appears from the correspondence of this committee that instruction is especially desired in pedagogy, chemistry, botany, physics, zoology, agriculture, history, literature, rhetoric and composition, German, mathematics, and Latin—all, excepting agriculture, primarily and principally for teachers of the public schools. In pursuance of the recommendations of this Committee report, December 7th, the Deans of the Colleges of Science and Agriculture called a joint meeting of their respective faculties, in which most of the departments primarily interested in summer school work were represented. At this meeting it was decided by a vote of seventeen to three that an offering of summer courses by the University in the departments of these colleges was to be desired, and a committee was appointed to consider plans and details. After full, but somewhat indeterminate, discussion the undersigned were appointed a subcommittee to draft a statement for presentation to the proper University authorities. On the basis of the discussion and votes of the College faculties and the joint committee mentioned above, we beg to submit, as the spirit and' substance of this faculty and committee action, the following plan for summer instruction at the University for the vacation period of 1899: We advise that a summer term of instruction equal in length to half a semester be offered by the departments of pedagogy, psychology, elementary biology, botany, zoology, entomology, physics, and chemistry, and that certain courses also be offered in horticulture, animal husbandry, and soils and crops. In the agricultural and horticultural departments it is to be presumed that the courses will be primarily for University students seeking the special advantages of summer experience and work. In the other departments mentioned we are of the opinion that the courses and offering should be made with principal reference to the needs of the teachers of the public schools, but that the wants of our own students should likewise be kept in mind. For the latter class it seems highly desirably that the Preparatory School should be kept open under such conditions that students deficient in entrance requirements may have an opportunity to make them good by vacation work under expert instruction. We would suggest that the conditions of admission to the summer term be made the same as to regular University courses for those desiring University credit for their work, but that it otherwise be open to any teacher holding a