Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1916 [PAGE 239]

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1915]

• PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

239

narily taught in the common schools of the State. • Said sections further provide that scholarships, under certain conditions, may be issued to the pupils of the common schools in the State, and beyond the limitations of these several sections the power is granted to the Board of Trustees of the Industrial University to prescribe by rules and regulations at a regular meeting of the board the requirements for admission of pupils and the requirements under which they may be allowed to graduate. The act by which the name of the institution was changed from the Illinois Industrial University to the University of Illinois gave to the University of Illinois the same powers as were formerly legally exercised by the Illinois Industrial University. See par. 16, chap. 144, Hurd's Stats., 1913, p. 2471* The act of 1873 to be found in paragraphs 17 and 18 of chapter 144, Hurd's Revised Statutes, 1913, page 2471, which changed the method of choosing the Trustees from appointment by the Governor to election by the People, also by the last seven lines in paragraph 18 changed or added to the power of the Trustees in the following language: "Said Board of Trustees may appoint an Executive Committee of three chosen out of their own number, which committee, when said board is not in session, shall have the management and control of the University and its affairs, and for that purpose shall have and exercise all the powers which are necessary and proper for such object, except in so far as the board may reserve such powers to itself, and any powers granted at any time by said board to such Executive Committee, the board may at any time revoke." It will be noted that this section of the law limits the membership of this Executive Committee to members of the Board of Trustees duly elected by the People. By paragraphs 170 to 175, inclusive, of chapter 122, Hurd's Revised Statutes, 1913, page 2215-16, a change was made as to scholarships provided for in section 9 of the original organic act, but expressly provides, in paragraph 174 of this chapter, that these scholarships shall not be available to students in the professional schools and colleges of the University. There are other statutes which authorize the creation of other departments of the University, as is done by the act of 1909, authorizing the creation of a Mining Engineering Department of the University, but I am unable to find any statute, other than those above cited, which grants or affects the grant of any power to the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois or to the University of Illinois itself which must act by and through such trustees. It is a well settled principle of law that public officers can legally exercise only such powers as are expressly granted to them by the law creating such office, and, in addition thereto, such implied powers as are reasonably necessary for the proper and complete performance of the duty or power expressly enjoined or granted, and all laws granting powers to public officers are to be strictly construed. See City of Chicago v. Hannon3 115 111. App., 183, and Diederich v. Rose, 228 111., 610. I am unable to find where any law expressly gives power to the Trustees of the University of Illinois to appoint or substitute, by contract or otherwise, persons other than three of the duly elected Trustees of said University to regulate or fix the requirements for admission to the University or any school or college which is a part thereof. This power cannot be implied, because such implication is negatived by the provision authorizing the appointment of an Executive Committee of three Trustees to control the University when the board is not in session, and by another provision in paragraph 18 of chapter 144 above cited, which provides for the filling of vacancies in the Board of Trustees by* the appointment of the Governor. The right to contract and to be contracted with given to the said Board of Trustees by section 1 of the organic act above quoted must of necessity^ be limited to contracts relating to the control of the University within the express or implied powers of the said Board of Trustees which are granted by the other sections of the act as above cited. It certainly does not extend to an unlimited power of general contract without reference to the subject matters over whicli the board is given powers, and hence does not extend to the making of any contract not within such powers expressly or impliedly given. Hence the power of delegating, by contract or otherwise, the authority of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, which is given to that board by this statute, to wit, to regulate and fix the terms of admission and graduation of students in the various colleges and schools of said University, to persons other than Tfustees, not being expressly or impliedly given by law, it would seem that the Board of Trustees of said University would not have the authority to make or enter into a contract which directly or indirectly would in effect substitute or delegate this power or a part thereof to the control or discretion of the governing boards or bodies of other universities. In reply to your second question, I will say that the effect of the contract referred to in this question is to accomplish exactly the purposes which in my answer to your first question is held .not to be within the power of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, because the Legislature may from time to time change* and alter the powers of the Board of Trustees of this University, and may from time to time change the requirements necessary to acquire medical education in that University. The General Assembly is the source of the existence of said University, andj is the source of all its powers. It has no power except as the same has been expressly or impliedly given by the General Assembly of Illinois. The power may now be given to the Board of Trustees to fix these requirements, and this Board of Trustees may desire that the Legislature fix different requirements than are desired by fhe governing bodies of the other universities, yet this contract, if valid, would require common or joint action of the governing bodies of the University of Illinois with the governing bodies of the other three universities in procuring the Legislature to fix requirements that meet the views or judgments of the other universities, which contract would be delegating