Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1916 [PAGE 783]

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1915]

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

783

On motion of Mr. Carr, the payment of $11,929.91 was accepted in full discharge of the obligation of Mr: Busey in this matter.

B I L L OF S T A T E A R C H I T E C T FOR E D U C A T I O N B U I L D I N G .

(3) A bill from Mr. James B. Dibelka, State Architect, for $860.82, on account of expenses incurred in the preparation of the plans for the Education Building, same being part payment of two and one-half per cent on the contract price allowed by statute. On motion of Mr. Hoit, this bill was ordered paid, by the following vote: Ayes, Mr. Abbott, Mr. Carr, Mrs. Evans, Mrs. Henrotin, Mr. Hoit, Mr. Ward, Miss Watson; noes, none; absent, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Busey, Mr. Dunne, Mr. Small, Mr. Trevett. '

C O M M U N I C A T I O N FROM DR. P. S. BARTO.

(4) A communication from Dr. P. S. Barto to the President of the University. Gn motion of Mrs. Henrotin this communication was referred to the Executive Committee for consideration.

S T R I K E ON C H E M I S T R Y BUILDING.

(5) The following statement: On July 19, 1915, certain union plumbers employed by the plumbing con* tractors, the Carson-Payson Company, on the addition to the Chemistry Building, walked out of the building on the ground that nonunion steamfitters were employed upon the job. Shortly after, Mr. P. J. Kennedy, National ofganizer of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union, arrived to conduct the strike and stated that they proposed to involve the building in a general strike unless the nonunion steamfitters left the building and union steamfitters took their place. On July 22 the carpenters and electricians were called out of the building by the National officers of their respective organizations. An attempt was made to satisfy the unions but it was unsuccessful. Mr. Prank J. Kennedy, General Organizer of the United Association of Plumbers and Steam Fitters of the United States and Canada, Mr. Olander, and Mr. John Pitzpatrick, President of the Chicago Federation of Labor, were present and addressed the board. After full discussion, on motion of Mrs. Henrotin this matter was referred to a special committee to be named by President Abbott,* with power to act.

B U D G E T , 1915-16.

(6) The Budget of the University for the year beginning July 1, 1915, introduced by the following statement: The total estimated income for the year is $3,061,377.80 ; estimated expenditure, $3,058,634.74, leaving a balance of $2,743.06. Special attention should be called to the fact that the estimated income from the mill tax was based upon the estimate provided by the State Auditor, and that it will be less than one-half of the five million dollars appropriated by the Legislature to the University for the biennium; the total receipts being estimated a t $2,332,958.51, a sum less than half of the total appropriation by $167,041.49. The balance from the tax levies of 1912 and 1913 in the Treasury of the State to the credit of the Mill Tax Fund, but unappropriated on June 30, 1915, was $91,912.44, which added to the estimated proceeds from the 1914 levy would make a total of $2,424,870.95 as the total estimated income of the University from the Mill Tax Fund available for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1915. The budget submitted includes in its land purchase and building scheme only the land already purchased and the buildings already contracted for, the sum necessary to meet these expenditures being $469,647. The sum indicated as income; namely, $3,061,377.80, is the total sum available from the income of the present fiscal year for the expenses within that year, including the balance in the hands of the Treasurer of the University and in the State Treasury from the preceding year's operations on July 1, 1915. If the board, therefore, should authorize any additional expenditures beyond those indicated in the present budget, it would be necessary either: (1) To defer the payment of the bills rendered for such expenditure until after July 30, 1916, or, (2) In order to pay these bills to borrow money at the bank to anticipate the revenue of the coming fiscal year, a device common to many State departments, or, (3) Draw on any unused balances in the items allowed 'for in this budget, or, (4) Draw on the income from the 1915 tax levy which begins to accumulate in the State Treasury from April 1, 1916. The Board of Trustees is between Scylla and Charybdis in the conduct of its financial affairs, owing to the impossibility of adjusting its expenditures exactly to its income or adapting the income exactly to the expenditure. If the board appropriates, for instance, the sum of $250,000 for a building, makes a contract for the erection of the building, and locks up the fund until the building is finished, things will come out even only if the building is completed within the time planned. If, owing to any accident, strikes, or difficulty in getting * President Abbott later appointed the following committee: Mr. Ward, Mr. Carr, Mr. Hoit, and Mr. Abbott.