Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1900 [PAGE 92]

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72

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

[April

19,

T h i s c o m m u n i c a t i o n was referred to t h e same special as t h e foregoing c o m m u n i c a t i o n .

REPAIRS AND MINOR IMPROVEMENTS.

committee

To the Board of Trustees. The University Appropriation Bill make provision for several minor improvements. One of these gives $10,000.00 for a water plant; another, $3,000.00 for a swimming tank at the men's gymnasium; another, $3,000.00 per annum for pavements and Walks; another, $5,000 00 per annum for painting and repairs of buildings and improvements to grounds; another, $2,000.00 per annum for drainage, fencing, etc., on the Experiment Farm and maintenance of barns; another, $10,000.00 for the purchase of small parcels of land surrounded by University lands; and another, $3,000.00 for wiring University Hall and Natural History Hall and purchasing electric light fixtures. All of these appropriations, except half of such as are made annually for two years, will be available after . July 1st. The work involved should be done in the vacation and be out of the way before the opening of the fall term, for the operations of the University are seriously embarrassed by the progress of the work in term time upon our roadways or in structures which we are using. It is therefore recommended that the Committee on Buildings and Grounds be authorized to arrange at once for carrying out the improvements contemplated, in the hope of completing them before the end of the vacation. As to pavements, it is obvious that what we are to do in the two years should be done at the same time, and it is desireable that we should have the advantage of all the pavement authorized at as early a day as practicable. I have advised with Professor Talbot, who is accustomed to pay attention to such matters, and concur in his recommendation that a pavement twenty feet wide be laid on Burrill avenue from Green street to Springfield avenue; one thirty-two feet wide on Springfield avenue from Burrill avenue to Romine street; and one thirty feet wide on Mathews avenue from Green street to California avenue. The expense of the first two pieces is estimated by Professor Talbot at $4,300.00 and of one-half of the last piece (the other half being paid by abutting property owners on the other side), at $2,400.00. These sums would more than exhaust the appropriation for the two years, b-ut the business manager advises that we may anticipate the appropriation for next year without difficulty, and the few hundred dollars of excess may properly be drawn from the fund for improvements to grounds. The pavement proposed is first quality of shale paving brick on concrete foundation with concrete curb and gutter. It is recommended that the funds above mentioned be appropriated to the purposes for which they are intended, that the pavement specified be authorized, and that the Committee on Buildings and Grounds and the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds have charge of the work.

A. S. DRAPER,

President, T h e r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s of t h i s c o m m u n i c a t i o n were approved a n d t h e C o m m i t t e e on B u i l d i n g s a n d G r o u n d s was given discretionary power, and instructed, to carry t h e m out. T h e several s u m s of money n a m e d therein, when received, a r e to be considered a p p r o p r i a t e d as r e c o m m e n d e d .

UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS. .

Jo the Board of Trustees. It seems to me that the time is ripe for the somewhat radical change in the form and character of certain University publications. We haye outgrown the Illini. It is better suited to the conditions of a small college or a normal school than to those of a large university. It 'does not carry the University