Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1914 [PAGE 174]

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Meeting of February 12, 1913.

A special meeting of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois was held at the University, in Urbana, at 2:30 P.M., on Wednesday, February 12, 1913, pursuant to the following notice which was sent out by the secretary on February 5, 1913: Upon the call of the President, Mr. W. L. Abbott, a special meeting of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois will be held in the trustees' room at the University, in Urbana, at 2:30 P.M., on Wednesday, February 12, 1913, to consider such matters as the committees of the board and the President of the University may submit, and such "other business as may be duly presented^ When the board convened, the following members were present:' Mr. Abbott, Mrs. Bahrenburg, Governor Dunne, Mrs. Evans, Mr. Grout, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Hoit, Mr. Montgomery. There were present, also: Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin and Mr. John R. Trevett, members-elect of the Board of Trustees; Dr. D. A. K. Steele, Dr. Charles Davison, and Dr. E. L. Heintz, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago; Dean O. A. Harker, Legal Counsel of the University, and President James. ACCEPTANCE OF T H E PROPERTY OF T H E COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS; AUTHORIZATION FOR REOPENING OF T H E MEDICAL SCHOOL. President James presented the following statement with respect to the status of the question whether the University should reopen its Medical School: The most important and urgent matter to be presented at this meeting is the question whether the University will reopen its Medical School. The people of Illinois owe a deep debt of gratitude to Governor John P. Altgeld for the keen interest which he took as Governor in the improvement of public education of all grades. He was especially interested in the University of Illinois. He was the first Governor of the State to insist that this institution, which had started as a mere college of agriculture, should be developed into a comprehensive State University, serving the needs of the commonwealth in as complete and thorough a way as had been done for many years previous by such universities as Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. He urged upon the trustees and upon the Legislature the necessity of enlarging the scope of the University work to such an extent as to make the University of Illinois fairly comparable with other modern institutions of the same class. In pursuance of this object he urged the trustees to establish a law school, and the outcome was the present University Law School, which has become well established and is doing a useful public service. He moved, in his capacity as member of the Board of Trustees, that the Chicago College of Pharmacy should be taken over by the State and made a State school of pharmacy under the control of the Trustees of the University. The result is the School of Pharmacy of the University of Illinois, a well established and successful department of the institution. He ur&ed further very strongly that the University should establish and develop medical instruction, to be on a full par with the instruction in agriculture, engineering, etc., offered by the University. It was at a meeting held in Springfield during his administration and upon his initiative that the trustees approved the introduction of a bill providing for the acquisition of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago. Owing to various circumstances which need not be described here, the school was affiliated instead of being acquired by the University. As a result of this action, taken in the spring of 1897, the University of Illinois conducted a Medical School in affiliation with the College of Physicians and Surgeons from the 1st of October, 1897, and a Dental School in affiliation with the same institution from October, 1901, until August 31, 1910. During this period of affiliation the University trustees requested the Legislature, at the session in January, 1907, to make an appropriation to the Trustees of the University so that they could acquire a plant by purchase or by construction for the conduct of the Medical School. By an overwhelming majority in both houses, an appropriation was made, amounting to three hundred and eighty-six 172