Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1904 [PAGE 356]

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332

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

[Aug, 16,

Your Committee therefore recommends awarding the contract for furnishing coal to the Springfield Coal Mining Company for No. 2 nut coal for $1.60 per ton, and that Pearl Adams be awarded the contract for hauling coal at 18 cents per ton. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted. Two hundred and fifty dollars was appropriated for repairs, in addition to the amount appropriated at the June meeting.

HORTICULTURAL PLANTINGS AND BUILDINGS.

On motion of Mr. Kerrick, the action taken by the Board at the March meeting by which plantings on University grounds lying west of Wright street extended was restricted to twelve years, was rescinded, by the following vote: Yeas, Messrs. Bayliss, McLean, Hatch, Nightingale, and Kerrick and Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Alexander; nays, Messrs. Bullard and McKinley; absent, Governor Yates and Mr. Dickirson and Mrs. Evans. Mr. Nightingale reported that the Buildings and Grounds Committee, to which was referred the question of the location of the horticultural building, referred the matter back to the Board without recommendation. On motion of Mr. Kerrick, the horticultural building was relocated about midway on the west side of the extension of Wright street, by the following vote: Yeas, Messrs. Hatch, Nightingale, and Kerrick, and Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Alexander; nays, Messrs. Bayliss, McLean, Bullard, and McKinley; absent, Governor Yates, Mr. Dickirson and Mrs. Evans. Mr. Bullard presented the following:

EXPLANATION OF VOTE.

I n explanation of my vote against the reconsideration of the action of this Board taken last March, and the rescinding of that action I desire to say that i t should be recognized by the members of this Board that it is sound policy to provide for the future growth of the University in a material way. The initial board of trustees, in locating University Hall, evidently placed it where it supposed the south end of the campus would always be. The grounds south of that building were set apart for gardens and experiment plats for the use of the agricultural and horticultural departments. The location of University Hall was fixed in 1870. I n thirty-four years the University has outgrown the limits fixed in 1870, and much more than double the amount of land comprising the original campus is now laid out for grounds and buildings. Again, another south end of the campus has been fixed by the Board of Trustees, this time in 1903, at the very south end of the University holdings, and it is clearly evident that the grounds will never be extended to the south beyond this limit. No one can believe the University will cease to grow. I n thirty-four years its growth has almost filled the north campus with buildings and is well advanced on the new south campus. I n recent years the growth of the University has been accelerated, that is, on geometrical lines as compared with arithmetical. I t must be recognized that the growth will continue if the Commonwealth of Illinois continues to prosper.