Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1904 [PAGE 56]

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32

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

[Deo. 9,,

has become a competitor in the markets of all nations. The long established supremacy of Europe in financial and commercial affairs is threatened. The United States is now recognized as the most potent factor in the affairs of t h e world. The cause for this apparently sudden industrial awakening in our country is being sought. I t is discovered by the philosophers t h a t the secret is in our system of education. Close observation reveals the fact that our technical schools are real fountains from which our national prosperity has come. The founding of the land grant colleges was the beginning of a national system of education in the applied sciences that has wrought such wonders in the development of our great natural resources. The untold wealth hidden in our soil awaits only the magic touch of science to come forth in all the varied forms of vegetation to supply the wants of man. The possibilities of steam and electricity in doing the world's work are yet unknown. The schools that give this knowledge are to be the schools of the future. Your committee after a careful study of the methods of instruction and the equipment of the leading technical schools in this country is of the opinion t h a t the College of Engineering ought to have additional buildings, a large increase in equipment, some increase in the instructional force, and some changes in t h e course of study and methods of instruction. We, therefore recommend thefollowing as pressing needs of the College: 1. A separate bnildlng for physics 3150,000 00 2. A mechanical engineering laboratory 60,003 00 3. A railway engineering laboratory 20,000 00 4. A foundry building:... 12,000 00

EQUIPMENT.

Equipment of mechanical engineering laboratory . $100,000 00 Equipment of an applied mechanics laboratory 90,000 00 Equipment for machine shops 15,000 00 Architecture 16,000 00 Civil engineering 14,250 00 Electrical engineering 63,000 0O

F. M. MCKAY, S. A. BULLARD, A. F. NIGHTINGALE,

Committee*

A petition from editors of agricultural newspapers published in Illinois, asking that the Board endeavor to get from the legislature an appropriation sufficient to enable the University to make tuition absolutely free, was referred to President Draper. Mr. Bullard from the Committee on Buildings and Grounds, recommended an appropriation of $200.00, or so much thereof as might be needed, to pay the balance due Mr. C. A. Lloyde for wiring and lighting the Chemistry Building, and the appropriation was made.

LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS.

The Committee on Legislative Appropriations appointed at the meeting of October 25th (page 151) offered the following report, which was first considered by the Board in committee of the whole.

URBANA, ILLINOIS, December 9, 1902.

To the Board of Trustees. Your special committee appointed at the last meeting of the Board to consider what appropriations should be asked for a t the coming session of the legislature,