Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1900 [PAGE 76]

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56

UNIVERSITY O F I L L I N O I S . COMMUNICATIONS FROM PRESIDENT DRAPER.

[March

14,

To the Board of Trustees. I respectfully submit the following business to your determination:

DONATION BY PROFESSOR EDWARD SNYDER.

1. Professor Edward Snyder, from the beginning and until 1896 professor of German and now emeritus professor of: German in the University, residing at Pacific Beach, California, desires to present to the University a considerable sum of money, to be paid in installments of which one thousand dollars or more will be paid next year, and which will probably amount to twelve thousand dollars in all, provided that the same is accepted by the Board of Trustees upon the following conditions, viz.: First, that the same shall be known as the "Edward Snyder Fund for the Benefit of Deserving Students,' 1 and shall be loaned to poor and deserving students to enable them to pursue work in the University; second, that the University shall agree to maintain said fund without loss or diminution and shall pay to the donor during his life, or to his wife if she shall survive him, interest on the sums received, at the rate of five per cent, per annum. Professor Snyder was for many years a valued teacher in the University as he and his wife were cherished members of the University society. He has been impelled to this generous benefaction by his conspicuous symyathy for poor students struggling for an education. I am not unaware that the administration of such a fund will require discriminating care, but am of the opinion that the University may well and safely assume it. It will afford some relief in a direction where the need has been very great. I therefore recommend that the gift be accepted, the conditions agreed to, the appreciative acknowledgments of the University expressed to the donor, and that the Board take steps to determine the principles and the plan upon which the wishes of the donor may be most satisfactorily carried out. 2. I recommend that the sum of $200 be appropriated to cover the expenses of the University High School Conference in May.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.

3. The opinion expressed a year ago touching the desirability of appointing a new head for the Department of Electrical Engineering remains unchanged. I advise that steps be taken at once to secure the best available man for this important position, with a view to final action by the Board at the June meeting. 4. The new Observatory time service is working satisfactorily and I recommend that an appropriation of: $50,00 be made with which to install secondary clocks in Natural History Hall and in the Chemical Laboratory. 5. Professor Walter Howe Jones was recently absent nearly four weeks because of illness, in consequence of which it was necessary to employ assistance at an expense of about $75.00. In view of the circumstances It is recommended that the absence be excused without the loss of pay. .6. After the last meeting of the Board, at which the sum of $300.00 was appropriated for apparatus in the Preparatory School, it was developed that the Principal of that department had some apparatus which had been used in the physics work in the School and which he desired to sell to the University. I have caused Professor Sager of the department of Physics in the University to i ; st and appraise the same. His report is herewith submitted. It fixes the value of the articles at $71.80, which I approve, and I recommend that the purchase be made at that sum.

HOUSEHOLD ECONOMICS.

7. There has been much discussion touching a department of household economics in the University. It seems to me that time and discussion are giving us a clearer vision of the course we ought to take. Mere expertness in performing or in supervising household duties does not seem to be up to the