Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1902 [PAGE 205]

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186

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

[ S e p t . 28^ STATION.

R E O R G A N I Z A T I O N OE T H E A G R I C U L T U R A L

T h e special c o m m i t t e e a p p o i n t e d with regard to t h e reorganization of the A g r i c u l t u r a l E x p e r i m e n t S t a t i o n s u b m i t t e d t h e following r e p o r t which was adopted:

URBANA, I I I . , Sept. 28, 1901.

lo the Board of Trustees, At the July meeting of the Board the undersigned were appointed a committee to formulate and report a plan for the organization of the Agricultural Experiment Station work. We have heretofore had an Advisory Board composed of one representative from each of the State agricultural bodies, and the Trustees have been accustomed to follow the recommendations of this Board, unless in very exceptional cases. And this, although it was known that attendance of members of the Board was very irregular and that it was exceedingly difficult to secure a quorum. At the last session of the Legislature new and, relatively, very large appropriations were made for special work at the Experiment Station. The act making these appropriations not only fixed the lines in which the moneys should be expended, but created an Advisory Committee upon each one of those lines, which should represent the State organizations directly interested therein. By operation of law, therefore, each of the State organizations heretofore represented upon the Advisory Board of the Station is much more completely represented than it has been heretofore, in the line of investigation in which it is most interested and upon which it is most competent to speak, with the exception of the State Board of Agriculture; and the representative from that Board has not been accustomed to attend the meetings of the Advisory Board, and moreover the State Board of Agriculture is by law directly represented in the Board of Trustees. It seems obvious to your committee, therefore, that the continuance of the Advisory Board upon the Experiment Station is unnecessary and liable to lead to confusion; indeed, that is liable to stand in the way of that assumption of responsibility by the Board of Trustees concerning the management of the investigational work of the State which is specifically charged by the act making the appropriations therefor. Your committee therefore recommends that the Advisory Board of the Experiment Station be discontinued; that the reasons therefor be made known to the members of that Board, and that the thanks of the Board of Trustees for assistance heretofore given be expressed to them. It is also recommended that the following words be stricken out of the preamble to the Statutes of the Board of Trustees touching the transaction of University business; viz, "And that in the transaction of the business of the Experiment Station the action of the Advisory Board of the Station shall be accepted for that of the Board of Trustees of the University when within the scope of the delegated powers conferred upon the Advisory Board and pursuant to the appropriations made by the Board of Trustees. The Director of the Station shall be the executive officer thereof.'' It is recommended that the mention of such Board be eliminated from the Statutes wherever it is made, and that the following paragraph be inserted in the Statutes: "Ihe Agricultural Experiment Station. The immediate direction of the affairs of the Station will rest with the Director thereof. Recommendations of the several advisory committees provided by the Act of the General Assembly of Illinois, approved May 10, 1901, shall be immediately transmitted to the Board of Trustees for approval before being acted upon. All appointments of regular employes of the Station will be made by the Trustees upon the recommendation the Directors of the Station, approved by the President of the University, and all purchases of