Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1914
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1914] PKOCEEDUSTGS OP THE BOARD OP TRUSTEES. 761 problems, and at its meeting on Friday, April 24, voted to make the following1 recommendation: ' . 1. That no arrangements for accepting money from private sources, to be paid out as a fellowship stipend in return for the prosecution of research in any line, shall be completed without the approval of the executive faculty of the Graduate School. 2. That no donation of money shall be accepted by the University from private sources for the purpose of prosecuting research in any lines in which the donors are commercially interested, except on the agreement that the results of the research are the property of the University and must be treated like other scientific research, in so far as concerns the right of the University to publish them or not to publish them, without reference to the needs or wishes of the donor of the gift. I submit this with the request that it be transmitted, if you approve, to the Board of Trustees for adoption as declaring the policy of the University in such v matters. Very truly yours, DAYID KINLEY. On motion of Dr. Montgomery, the foregoing action of the Executive Faculty of the Graduate School was approved. OFFER FROM GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY. (25) The following statement: Professor Ernst Julius Berg has requested me to ask the Board of Trustees whether they would be willing for the General Electric Company, of Schenectady, N. Y., to * make an arrangement with a member of the staff of the Engineering Experiment Station, by which he should take out a patent on a certain valuable discovery which he seems to have made in the course of his investigations. It is understood that if he does he will assign the patent to the General Electric Company. They will undertake to reimburse the University for the expense involved in the work which the member of the staff has been carrying on, including his salary during the time he was making this investigation. They will also pay him a certain sum for his work and offer him a position with the company. The discovery he has made is, of course, of problematical value. In the opinion of the company, it would have no special value if simply published as an ordinary scientific bulletin, since it would take a large sum of money to determine by actual experiment on a commercial scale whether the discovery has any practical significance, and no individual or company will undertake^ to make this experiment unless it cduld be reasonably sure that if it turned out to be valuable, it could have control of the discovery, at least for a time, which would return to the company the expenditure involved in the experimentation. It is believed by the company that it would be well to adopt some such plan in connection'with scientific investigation in the University laboratories; i. e., a scheme under which the University would receive back the money expended upon such investigation, under which the investigator should have the opportunity of a special pecuniary return for his work, and under which it would be possible to secure the practical utilization of such discoveries which would generally depend upon the possibility of having exclusive use of such discoveries or possible nventions for a limited time. I doubt whether such an arrangement would commend itself to the people of the State of Illinois, and I shall refuse the offer unless the board otherwise directs. No action was taken concerning this matter. STREET CAR L I N E EAST OF FORESTRY. (26) A request from Hon. William B. McKinley, on behalf of the Urbana Railway, Gas and Electric Company, for permission to run a street car line south, on Lincoln Avenue on the parking east of the Forestry. On the recommendation of President James and on motion of Mr. Hoit, this request was referred to the Committee on Buildings and Grounds for consideration and report. G I F T OF C O L L E C T I O N OF A L G A E . (27) A letter from Professor Trelease stating that Mrs. Mary Snyder, of LaJolla, Cal., has presented to the Department of Botany of the University a complete set of one of the great published collections of algae—the Phycotheca Boreali-Americana of Collins, Holden, and Setchell. On motion of Mrs. Evans, the gift was accepted and the President of the University was authorized to express the thanks of the Trustees of the University for this gift. REAPPROPRIATION OF A G R I C U L T U R A L FUNDS. (28) A recommendation that the balances of the receipts in the College of Agriculture amounting to $1,665.90, and in the Agricultural Experiment Station,
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