Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1914 [PAGE 120]

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118

UNivEKSiTY

OF ILLINOIS.

[September 10,

On motion of Mrs. Evans, it was voted to approve these plans for the service buildings in connection with the Horticultural Greenhouses as submitted, and to authorize the supervising architect to call for bids on the basis of these plans. At this point Mr. Moore took his seat with the board. REPORT OF T H E COMMITTEE ON T H E COLLEGE OF MEDICINE.

Mrs. Busey, as chairman of the Committee on the College of Medicine, reported to the board information received by the committee that donations and options have been secured for a majority of the stock of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. D. A. K. Steele, president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, who was present, confirmed this information, specifying that he had donations promised of 1,003 shares and written options on 785 shares, making 1,788 shares already available, out of a total of 2,170 shares. RECOMMENDATION OF T H E PRESIDENT OF T H E UNIVERSITY. In this connection, the president of the University recommended the adoption by the board of the following resolution: Resolved, That the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois will request the next Legislature to grant the sum of at least one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) per annum for the support of the University Medical School; and that they will reopen a Medical School in the city of Chicago, provided such an appropriation be obtained,* and provided that the alumni of the College of Medicine, or other person, secure to the University the possession of an adequate plant and site in the city of Chicago, either by presenting to the trustees the stock of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, or by the provision of an equally good site and plant elsewhere in the city. President James presented also the following statement of his position in the matter: The foregoing recommendation is based upon the conviction that the University of Illinois ought not to attempt to conduct a Medical School upon the basis of the fees of medical students alone; and that under no circumstances ought the University to attempt to conduct a Medical School without the consent of the Legislature and without an adequate appropriation from the Legislature for the support of the school. Attention is called to the fact that the universities of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana and Missouri all require for admission to their medical courses the completion of two full years of college work in addition to graduation from the standard four-year high school; and that all the institutions of the Association of American Universities, of which the University . of Illinois is a member, so far as they conduct medical schools, require, with a single exception, similar conditions of admission. These conditions have been accepted by all persons interested in medical research and education as the minimum requirement which any university should accept. Attention is called to the fact that it would be impossible to conduct a Medical School with such standards upon the basis of fees alone, and that, therefore, a legislative appropriation would be absolutely necessary to undertaking the control and management of a Medical Department. The University of Illinois cannot afford to lend the weight of its influence in the slightest degree to debase the high standards of medical education which have been finally attained by the leading universities of America.

VOTE ON CONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE OF P. AND S. PROPERTY.

After .a full discussion of the subject from all points of view, it was voted, on motion of Mr. Hatch, that the Board of Trustees will accept the property of the College of Physicians and x Surgeons, provided that all the stock has been secured and donated to the University on or before February 1, 1913. The vote was as follows: Ayes, Mr. Abbott, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Evans, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Hoit, Mr. Moore; noes, Mr. Anthony, Mrs. Busey; absent, Mrs. Bahrenburg, Mr. Deneen, Mr. Grout, Mr. Meeker. Mrs. Busey stated in explanation of her vote that she was in favor of accepting the property of the College of Physicians and Surgeons on the condition that an adequate appropriation for the support of a medical school shall be obtained from the Legislature, but not without this condition. At this point Mr. Hoit withdrew from the meeting.