Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1916 [PAGE 238]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

238

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

[Apr.

27,

Further, that the universities shall attempt to secure legislation which will authorize the State Board of Health to make a standard of license to practice in Illinois which shall be in conformity with the standards adopted by the universities. April Tt, 1915. Education: School Officers. Re Board of Trustees of "University of Illinois. Hon. David Kinley, Vice President, University of Illinois, Urbana, III. DEAR S I R : Your communication of the 12th instant with a copy of the main features of an agreement which it is proposed shall be entered into by the Trustees of the University of Illinois with the governing authorities of three other universities, all of .which universities are private corporations, has been received. This proposed agreement relates to the Medical Departments of the University of Illinois, a public corporation governed by State officers elected by the People, and the Medical Departments of the University of Chicago, the Northwestern University, and the Loyola University, private corporations governed by corporationschosen trustees or directors, and provides for the joint action of these different governing bodies for substantially the following purposes: '(1) To fix a minimum standard of preliminary educational requirements for admission to the medical schools of the universities in this State; (2) to fix uniform requirements for graduation from medical schools; (3) to secure a requirement by the State Board of Health that service for one year as a hospital interne will be necessary for a license to practice medicine in Illinois after 1920; ( 4 ) ' t o influence the Legislature to authorize the State Board of Health to maintain a standard of admittance to practice medicine in conformity with the standards of the medical schools of the universities of the State. Upon this statement you request my opinion upon the three following questions: (1) Is it within the power of the University of Illinois as a State institution, under its charter, to make an agreement with other institutions as to requirements of admission, or requirements of graduation, thus in effect giving to the other .institutions, parties to the agreement, a voice in determining admission to and graduation from the University of Illinois? (2) Is it within the province or right of the University of Illinois, a State institution, through its officers to agree with others to influence, or try to influence, the Legislature in matters relating to medical education? (3) Is it within the province or right of the University of Illinois to influence, or try to influence, the State Legislature to require or authorize the State Board of Health to maintain a standard of admission to the practice of medicine, in conformity with the requirements of the universities, parties to the agreement? In reply to your first question I will say that the Trustees of the University of Illinois are .State officers, and are now elected by the People of the State. [Hurd's Stat. '1913, p. 2471, chap. 14'4, pars. 17-18.] These officers were created by the act establishing the institution now called the University of Illinois [Hurd's Stat. 1913, p. 2471, chap. 144, par. 16] a public corporation with power to regulate and control such University. All the powers of said Trustees were defined in the act providing for the * organization of this institution. Their general powers as a corporate body are defined in the first section of this act to be found in the public laws of Illinois [Sess. Laws of 1867, p. 123] in the following language: "That it shall be the duty of the Governor of this State within ten days from the passage of this act, to appoint five trustees, resident in each of the judicial grand divisions of this State, who, together with one additional trustee, resident in each of the congressional districts of this State, to be appointed in like manner, with their associates and successors, shall be a body corporate and politic, to be styled 'The Board of Trustees of the Illinois Industrial University' ; and by that name and style shall have perpetual succession, have power to contract and be contracted with, to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to acquire, hold, and convey real and personal property; to have and use a common seal, and to alter the same at pleasure; to make and establish by-laws, and to alter or repeal the same as they shall deem necessary for the management or government, in all its various departments and relations, of the Illinois Industrial University, for the organization and endowment of which provision is made by this act, said appointments to be subject to approval or rejection by the Senate at its next regular session thereafter, and the appointees to be and they are hereby authorized to act as Trustees as aforesaid, until their successors shall be appointed by the Governor, and such appointment shall be approved by the Senate." The powers of said trustees with reference to the conduct of said University, the methods of teaching therein, the requirements for admission of students and for the issuing of certificates of attainments to students, however, are defined and limited by sections 7, 8, 9, and 10 of this same act to be found on pages 125, 126, and 127 of the Public Laws of 1867. These sections provide, among other things, that the Board of Trustees may accept the endowment of voluntary professorships or departments in the University, and at any regular meeting of the board may prescribe rules and regulations in relation to such endowments and declare on what general principles they may be admitted, and provides further that they shall, as far as practicable, arrange all the regular and more important courses of studv and lectures in the University so that the students may pass through and attend upon them during the six autumn and winter months, and be left to return to their several practical arts and industries at home during the six spring and summer months of the year, or to remain in the University and pursue such optional studies or industrial avocations as such students may elect; provides further that no student shall at any time be allowed to remain in or about the University in idleness or without full mental or industrial occupation ; and provides further that no student shall be admitted to instruction in any of the departments of the University who shall not have attained to the age of fifteen years, and who shall not previously undergo a satisfactory examination in each of.the branches ordi-