Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1914 [PAGE 192]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

190

UNIVEKSITY OF ILLINOIS.

[March 5,

For the present, the interest may be looked upon as a permanent rental, and certainly no one can examine, this property without seeing that it is very valuable and that such a sum represents an astonishing low rental. But having the plant for' the Medical College and having the students is only a small part of building up a medical school. In order to conduct a medical school worthy of the State of Illinois, it will be absolutely necessary to have at least the sum of one hundred thousand dollars per annum which we are asking for in this bill. The University must advance its standards of admission to at least the same level as those maintained by Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and'Iowa. This will inevitably cut down the attendance, though it will secure a far better grade of material in the ranks of future practitioners. It will be necessary to provide adequate facilities in the laboratories, libraries, etc., and to provide these facilities for a modern medical school a considerable sum will be necessary. Twenty-five states have definitely adopted the policy of providing facilities for the education of those who desire to practice upon the community as physicians, including practically all the important state universities. Uinois lags at the tail end of the procession. We respectfully urge that this sum be granted in, full. A special plea will be presented to the Legislature upon this topic. It will be noted that an increase has been asked for the College of Agriculture and for the various items, live stock investigations, crop investigations, soil investigations, horticultural investigations, and dairy investigations. These increases are provided, however, from the one hundred and fifty-three thousand dollars voted by the last Legislature for agricultural buildings, so that the total appropriation for the Agricultural College and Experiment Station is somewhat less than it was the last time; although we are asking for an increase in the purchase of land item and for the erection of the Chemistry Laboratory and other University buildings, which redound, of course, to the benefit of the College of Agriculture as to that of the other departments. The other items in this bill are all simple in their nature, and the argument for the same will be presented by the officers of the University before the committees of the Legislature. A word in regard to the Chemistry Laboratory, which is the largest item called for under buildings, will not be out of place. While the Department of Chemistry is classified under the College of Science, it really devotes most of its work to the instruction of agricultural and engineering students. Every engineering student is now required by the ^University to take a course in chemistry, as is every agricultural student. The number of students in these courses has more than doubled since the present building was erected, and it is necessary to provide more ample accommodations for these students or else to exclude some of them altogether from work which the faculties think forms an essential part of the curriculum. We are asking for an addition to the Commerce Building for administrative purposes, so that the administrative offices now in the Natural History Building may be moved out, making room for additional laboratories in botany, geology, physiology, bacteriology, etc. The University was compelled to exclude students in the College of Agriculture and College of Science from the courses in bacteriology during the present semester and from the courses in physiology, as also in zoology and botany, because of lack of laboratory room and laboratory facilities. The steady increase of students in the College of Agriculture makes it imperative that the facilities for the courses in bacteriology, biology, including botany and zoology, and physiology shall be enlarged. This will be accomplished by transferring the administrative offices to the addition to the Commerce Building and also by completing the present Natural History Building. The building for the School of Education and the Residence Hall for Women have been urged upon the attention of the Legislature before, and by common consent it was agreed that these buildings should be provided for as soon as funds were available. The biennial report made to the Governor showing transactions of the board and full quarterly statements of income and expenditures up to July 1, 1912, Is now printed and in your hands. All of which is respectfully submitted. REQUESTS FOR APPROPRIATIONS 1913-15. (The items are arranged in the order followed in the appropriation bills passed by the Forty-seventh General Assembly, with the amounts appropriated by the Forty-seventh General Assembly in a parallel column for the purposes of comparison.)

I. SECTION MAINTENANCE AND EXTENSION 1. BILL.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

1911-13. Salaries and operating expenses $1,150,000 00 Shop practice 12,000 00 Cabinets and collections 8,000 00 Additions to Library 50,000 00 Fire protection 3,000 00 Apparatus and appliances 8,000 00 Pavements and walks 8,000 00 Engineering College and Experiment Station 180,000 00

1913-15. $1,350,000 00 12,000 00 20,000 00 100,000 00 5,000 00 20,000 00 8,000 00 230,000 00

Increase. $200,000 00

12,000 50,000 2,000 12,000

00 00 00 00

50,000 00