Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1916 [PAGE 925]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1916]

PROCEEDINGS OP THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

925

library and museum interests and avoid ,the duplication of large classrooms which can be used in common by different departments. There is no hope that such a building can be provided either now or ever out of the mill tax revenue. Furthermore, the College cannot wait ten years for relief. It cannot wait five years without some substantial relief, but naturally if such a building were under process of construction that fact in itself would do much to allay restlessness and encourage both students and faculty by the prospect of better things. If, however, such a building is to be looked to as a means of relief it must be provided in some form by the coming Legislature. The policy must be announced early and a campaign started before election. For that reason I am asking at this time that the Trustees take the matter into serious consideration and determine whether in their judgment such a campaign should be opened. Two years ago the feeling was general that such a campaign was inadvisable. Whether it is now advisable is for the Trustees to determine, but I have given abundant evidence that the problem can no longer be ignored. The alternative is, of course, to postpone the issue by providing the College with additional space of temporary construction, which I assume can be provided within the mill tax, but it will require not less .than one hundred thousand square feet, half of which should be provided as soon as it can be constructed. I think I am speaking for all my associates when I say that the faculty is not strenuous about an entirely new plant at this time. Naturally we should prefer to go on with our work and leave our successors the task of planning and erecting so comprehensive a plant as the College of Agriculture will shortly need. None of us has an ambition to devote the next three or four years to the details of building space and erection and yet we are desirous above all things to do that which is best for the College and the University. In discussing the matter with the representative farmers I find them in every case opposed to the policy of temporary construction, or of temporizing with the situation in any way. They point out, and correctly, that to equip the College now with temporary buildings is not to solve the problem, but only to postpone it, and, so far as I have discussed the matter, without exception these men are ready to go to work for funds for a comprehensive plant if, in the judgment of the Trustees, it is wise to do so, considering all the interests of the University. Upon this point, of course, I am not a competent judge. Two years ago I had the feeling that if such a campaign were to be inaugurated it should be not only for the Agriculture Building but for the Library Building also, upon the general proposition that the Trustees cannot operate a great University and at the same time build the plant out of the proceeds of the mill tax, and I am not sure yet but this would be the best procedure, proposing a bond issue rather than an appropriation, upon the ground of distributing the cost equally among those who are to be benefited. However, I am convinced now that it is entirely safe to launch a campaign for an agricultural building alone without regard to any other, though I am sure that at the outset it would have to appear that this is not the only building which the Trustees will be unable to provide without outside help. My work on the budget committee has convinced me that if the University is to grow as it ought to grow, in quality as well as in quantity, the entire mill tax will be absorbed in operating expenses within the space of two or, at the most, three bienniums, unless the basis of taxation is changed. As I have already indicated nobody covets the task of conducting such a campaign and yet everybody involved so far as I know is entirely willing to undertake it as being the only adequate solution of our problem. Above all things we dread to see a condition of dry rot developing in the heart of our work in agriculture. One phase of the situation I may perhaps with profit emphasize at this point. There is yet in the State outside in good working order the original body of men who placed the College of - Agriculture upon its feet. Not only that, the members of the faculty who worked with them and with whom they feel acquainted are all still with us, and the old working combination can be quickly revived for an aggressive campaign. Naturally, such a condition will not longer continue and there will probably never again be a time when the machinery for such a campaign is as complete or the forces Inside and out as nearly intact and as well acquainted as now. Several of the "Old Guard" have dropped out already, two of them this year. In the natural order of events greater changes in our faculty will occur in the next few years than have occurred in those of the past and undoubtedly the conditions for a successful campaign, so far as its promoters are concerned, will never again be duplicated. Back of it all we now have a President and a Board of Trustees who understand agriculture and its meaning in this State as perhaps it may not be understood by their successors. For the first time in such a campaign we would have a large body of active students and alumni who thoroughly understand the needs of the College in this •respect, and who are in a position, through their organizations and their journal, the Illinois Agriculturist, to promote the enterprise from the students' standpoint, an influence I am satisfied which would be felt in the State with no little effect. I have discussed the matter repeatedly and at length with my associates, particularly the heads of departments, and we agree perfectly as to the gravity of the situation and as to the way out. I have therefore no hesitation in making definite recommendations. All things considered, I am clear in recommending: 1. That the University authorize a campaign for a $2,000,000 Agriculture Building to be erected from funds outside of the mill tax, either under a State appropriation or a bond issue, as circumstances seem to advise. 2. That this authorization be given at the earliest possible moment to the end that time, which is a large factor in our success, may be used to the best advantage and the campaign be gotten well on its fee£ before the falj electjpns,