Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1920 [PAGE 289]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1919]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PROFESSOR G. M'P. S M I T H P R O M O T E D

285

(33) A recommendation that Professor G. M. Smith of the department of chemistry be promoted to be Associate Professor of Chemistry at a salary of three thousand dollars a year, beginning September 1, 1919.

This recommendation was approved.

R E V I S E D B U D G E T OF B U S I N E S S OFFICE (34) A recommendation from the Comptroller for certain changes in the budget of the Business Office to be effective March 1, 1919. February 5, 1919 President Edmund J. James

M Y DEAR PRESIDENT JAMES:

The unusual number ©f changes in the staff of my office during the past year and the unusual conditions we have confronted during this year, make it seem desirable that I present to you in midyear a revised budget for the department for the remainder of the year. I enclose herewith a statement showing the appointments and positions authorized in the original budget and through subsequent recommendations, and the list of appointments recommended for the remainder of the year beginning March 1,1919. The principal changes in organization are as follows: 1. The transfer of R. D. Castle, formerly Assistant Auditor, to a new position of Assistant Purchasing Agent. The problem of creating an efficient organization in the Purchasing Department has been a constant one. During the past few months an effort to get along with persons of clerical capacity only and at low salaries, has failed utterly to give the service demanded by University departments. There is also an increased tendency on the part of various officers at Springfield to criticise the work of this division. A careful study of the situation indicates that the work can be successfully handled only by an enlargement in the responsible positions in that division, and in line with this situation I am recommending this addition. 2. Another division seriously affected by the conditions of this year is the Bursar's division. It has been necessary to practically reorganize that division and to institute new records and systems for a large part of its work. There are increasing demands also on that division, resulting from its assuming full responsibility for receipts of every kind due the University, including the collection of all accounts for sales, etc. This work is being better done than ever before, and accounts are being much more promptly and fully collected, so that the increased organization is fully justifying itself. This division handles all cash coming into the hands of the office, and for that reason it is necessary to employ persons who are reliable and trustworthy, as well as capable. 3. The majority of the other changes result from inability to fill positions at the salaries set in the summer, or from the necessity of engaging a better type of clerk than originally contemplated.