Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1906
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350 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. [April 25 4. I recommend that the Trustees give to the President of the University authority to offer to Professor Arthur Fairbanks of the University of Iowa, the position of Professor of Archaeology and head of the classical department in the University at a salary of $3,000 a year, work and salary to begin September 1, 1906. Voted that this recommendation be approved. 5. I recommend that the Trustees give the President of the University authority to offer John Paschal Brooks of the State College of Kentucky the position of Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at a salary of $2,250 a year, work and salary to begin September 1, 1906. Voted that this recommendation be approved. 6. I recommend that the Trustees give to the President of the University authority to offer the position of Associate Professor of Mathematics in the University to Dr. G. A. Miller of Leland Stanford Jr. University at a salary of $2,000 a year, work and salary to begin September 1, 1906. Voted that this recommendation be approved. 7. I recommend that the Trustees give the President of the University authority to offer the position of Assistant Professor of Mathematics to Dr. Charles Haskins of Cornell University, at a salary of $1,500 a year, work and salary to begin September 1, 1906. Voted that this recommendation be approved. T H E OBSERVATORY. The following letter from Mr. Stebbins, Assistant Professor of Astronomy, was presented by President James a°nd it was ordered that it be printed in the minutes. URBANA, ILLINOIS, April 16, 1906^ . President E. J. James, University of Illinois. MY DEAR SIR—In reference to our recent conversation, I wish to present on bebalf of the Observatory, a vigorous protest against the laying of any street car track south of the new Auditorium. I am not sure just what effect the large building will have, but I do know that the passing of street cars near the Observatory would seriously hamper our work, on account of the vibrations they would cause. Several times we have had occasion to ask the men who were cutting grass to work farther away while our students were making observations, and there is no doubt that cars passing every few minutes would prove an intolerable nuisance. Any astronomer would call it folly to build an observatory so close to a car line. It should be remembered that our instruments exaggerate the small vibrations of the earth just as much as they magnify objects in the sky. At the University of Wisconsin they have found that certain kinds of work can not be done within five minutes after the passing of a train nearly half a mile away. Drake Observatory is within fifty feet of a car line, and they can do absolutely nothing while a street car is in the same block. Our present building and equipment are worth about $16,000, and the location has so far been almost ideal for this vicinity. We have been close enough to other buildings for convenience, and far enough away to avoid heavy traffic. If at any future time a sum of say $25,000 or more should be available for other instruments, there would be a good site just south and east of the present Observatory, provided the street cars do not encroach upon us. To move any of our instruments farther away from the other buildings would practically preclude their use by students. The experience of every University where the Observatory is not near the main campus bears this out. I hope that the importance of this will be fully appreciated by the Board of Trustees, and I would be glad to appear before them and answer any questions if necessary. Yours respectfully, JOEL STEBBINS, Assistant Professor of Astronomy.
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