Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1920 [PAGE 223]

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1919]

U N I V E R S I T Y OF I L L I N O I S

219

There will be a small amount of salvage to be deducted from the above cost. The reconstruction work is completed, but the exact cost has not been figured up. On the basis of three thousand students this would make the cost per man for these houses $14.00, to which we must also add the cost of the wood floor in the Armory which, allowing for salvage, will be in the neighborhood of $30,000.00, or $10.00 per man, making a total of $24.00 per man for barracks as against the cost of about $60.00 for the building of temporary barracks. These figures of course do not include any operating costs which would not be far different in the cases of the permanent housing and the temporary barracks. The damage to the houses was chargeable in the main to the following four causes: (1) Damage to floors (a) on account of the heavy shoes; and (b) because of the use of excess of water in cleaning. (2) Damage to ceilings because of overflow of plumbing fixtures due to the misuse of same. (3) Damage to plaster in hallways from the carrying in and out of the iron cots; and (4) Damage caused by the greasing up of the houses from cleaning of rifles. The cost of the construction work at the Armory is about $125,000, part of which will be charged against barracks, and part against mess hall. I think that this building should be restored to its original condition v/ith the exception of the concrete floor which I hope we can retain, but that will involve the laying of a maple floor over the entire area as a concrete floor makes the building useless for the department of athletics, and much less desirable than it was for the work of the Military department. The building as it is can be used for both athletic and military work, and therefore I do not think we should start our reconstruction until spring. In the meantime the building is still in use by the Quartermaster and it was exceedingly fortunate that we had so much space on a ground floor for the storage of his supplies. We also still have in the building a stock of staple groceries and canned goods worth $61,000.00. The S. M. A. Quartermaster is still occupying the Illinois Union building, and the first floor of the Y. M. C. A. is occupied as a barracks and headquarters for the headquarters companies of both the S. M. A. and the S. A. T. C , which are still retained here for office duty. We have no assurances as to when the Quartermasters will be able to wind up their affairs as they have not at the present time any shipping instructions for the material still on hand, but it is all assembled in places where it does not interfere with the regular use of our University buildings. Our lease on the Y. M. C. A. building called for sixty days' notice of cancellation prior to the first day of January or the first day of July. We were not able to give this notice prior to the first day of January, and could not very conveniently have turned over the building to the Y. M. C. A. in time so that they could have opened up their usual activites there by the first of the year. WTe would probably be criticised for charging the Government rent on the building for the next six months without making some attempt to derive a revenue from it; I therefore made arrangements to rent rooms in the building and to run a cafeteria and lunch room in the