Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1912 [PAGE 511]

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1911]

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OE TRUSTEES.

467

Meeting of the Executive Committee August 1, 1911.

In pursuance of a call sent out by the president of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, a meeting of the Executive Committee of the board was held at the Blackstone hotel in Chicago, on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 1911, beginning at 2 :30 p. m. There were present Mr. Abbott and Mr. Grout, members of the Executive Committee, Mrs. Evans, Mr. Hoit, Mr. Meeker and Mr. Moore, members of the board, and President James.

INJUNCTION TO PREVENT PAYMENT OF LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS.

The president of the University stated that the firm of Ashcraft and Ashcraft, of Chicago, in accordance with the statement previously sent to Dean 0. A. Harker, University Counsel, had sent' out a notice to the proper parties of their intention to apply for an injunction to prevent the payment of the appropriations made in sections two (2) and six (6) of House Bill No. 642 as it was passed by the Forty-seventh General Assembly, appropriating (section 2) $60,000.00 per 'annum for the support, extension and equipment of the College of Medicine, and (section 6) $65,000.00 per annum for the support of the soil investigations conducted by the Department of Agronomy. Messrs. Ashcraft and Ashcraft had asked that the hearing be held before Judge James A. Creighton, of Springfield, on Monday morning, July 31. The Attorney General, however, had applied for a postponement of the hearing until Wednesday morning, August v 2. The outcome of the application for the injunction, which it was hoped at the time the notice for this meeting was sent out would be definitely known by the time of the meeting, was still, therefore, a subject for future decision. The president stated further that the time had come when the board could no longer postpone the decision of the question whether they will proceed with plans for the expenditure of the medical funds. He called attention to the fact that the board at a previous meeting had authorized a reorganization of the first two years of the College of Medicine, involving the employment of an adequate force to give proper instruction and make the school a, center of research as well as teaching in the field of public health. He stated that it would not be possible to get the proper men for the headship of these departments unless an offer could be made to them immediately. The president asked, therefore, what the pleasure of the board was as to this matter. In an informal discussion the chairman polled the members of the board present as to their views upon this subject^ Each one declared himself positively in favor of proceeding with the reorganization of the College of Medicine as if there had been no application for an injunction against the payment of this appropriation to the Board of Trustees. Mr. Grout moved that it is the sentiment of the members of the board present that the University should proceed with the reorganization of the first two years of the College of Medicine as approved by the board at a previous meeting (see p. 434). This motion was seconded by Mr. Meeker.