Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1916 [PAGE 851]

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1915]

PKOCEEDLNTGS OF THE BOAKD OF TRUSTEES.

851

be provided for the proper disbursements of such items. The Smith-Lever receipts may not 'reach the University Treasurer until possibly a month or two after the beginning of our fiscal year. Under such conditions, it was, of course, imperative that immediate action be taken to provide funds for expenses chargeable to the Smith-Lever income. Such action was taken at the beginning of this fiscal year. We recently requested the Treasurer to transfer $5,000 from general funds to trust funds. This was on account of military suits. Fees collected on account of military suits are held as a trust fund, inasmuch as the money is paid directly to the firm furnishing the suits, or, in some instances, refunded to the student if he is excused from military drill. In any event, the total amount collected is paid out and the money, therefore, is in the nature of a trust fund. Now, fees on account of military suits are collected at the same time as other fees, these collections being made at various stations about the Campus. On registration days, the collections vary from $35,000 to $45,000 per day, or $90,000 for the two days. I t is not advisable to keep this amount of money on hand, and deposits are, therefore, made on registration days at frequent intervals. The stubs evidencing the items for which the cash has been received are not returned into the business office from the various stations nor checked up for a couple of days. These stubs contain both general as well as military fees, that is to say, money received on account of general fund and on account of trust fund. It would be impossible at the time such deposit is made to state how much of the deposit is for general fund and how much for trust fund. The information giving this separation is not available until after the deposits have been made. This office could not afford to retain the collections during registration days in the vaults at our disposal. That would be absolutely unsafe. Consequently, there is no recourse for us except in asking transfers from the general fund to a trust fund on account of fees collected for military suits. The above two instances will probably show you the necessity for quick action in the matter of transfers. In fact, no transfers can be anticipated and all transfers must be made on short notice. This condition reallv makes it almost necessary to empower the Comptroller to authorize the transfers referred to. Yours truly,

W. B. CASTENHOLZ, Comptroller.

On motion of Mr. Carr, authority was granted to the Comptroller to direct the Treasurer to transfer moneys from one fund to another, provided that no change be made in the trust funds without permission of the Board of Trusteed nor in other funds without the approval of the President of the board.

E M P L O Y M E N T OF A U D I T C O M P A N Y .

(12) A request'from the Comptroller for the appointment of a firm of certified public accountants to audit the books of the University: September 29, 1915. President Edmund J. James, University of Illinois. DEAR S I R : Will you kindly advise me whether the firm of certified public accountants that is to audit the books of % the University has been selected by the Finance Committee. The by-laws provide* that an audit shall be made at the end of each quarter; the period of audit now contracted for ends March 31, 1916. I should like to submit the names of the following firms to the Finance Committee. I am quite sure that any of them would give the University the very highest class of service, and, in fact, service which might be of actual benefit to our office in the way of accounting organization and suggestions. The firms that I have especially in mind a r e : Lybrand, Ross Brothers, and Montgomery, Chicago, 111.; Clinton H. Scovell and Company, Chicago, 111.; Anderson, Del^any, and Company, Chicago, 111. I think the University should secure certified pulbic accountants who stand for the highest kind of professional ethics and whose reputations are absolutely without blemish. Any of the above concerns can measure up to such a standard. Very truly yours,

W. B. CASTENHOLZ, Comptroller.

This request was referred to the Finance Committee with power to act.

(13) A request from Prof. Stephen1 A. Forbes for an appropriation of five thousand dollars to provide fire-proof and dust-proof cases for the collections in entomology: October 0 , 1915. _ President Edmund J. James. DEAR DR. JAMES : The proposed transfer this semester of the State collection of insects from a room in the old and combustible part of the Natural History Building to one in the new fireproof part naturally brings up the subject of the accommodation, improvement, and utilization of these collections, with special reference to the University interest. The product of forty years' work of the State Entomologist's Office and the Natural History Survey, they have become very large—probably, the most valuable State collection in America. They are unusually useful for scientific purposes because I have from the beginning preserved and put on permanent record data of time, place, and precise condition for each collection. Much of the material is, indeed, the product of breeding-cage work, and valuable, conseouently, for life-history studies. We have now in round numbers about 337,000 pinned specimens of insects, 22,200 bottle and vials of alcoholic specimens, and 5.000 microscope slides. From five to ten per cent of these specimens ^v^^ng to economic species, and are useful in the work of the State Entomologist's Office, but the remainder is of value chiefly

CASES FOR C O L L E C T I O N S IN ENTOMOLOGY.