Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1928 [PAGE 107]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

104

board of trustees

[September 22

Whereas, we have full knowledge that our appointments came from the Board of Trustees and are authoritative, and Whereas, their failure to recommend a Divisional Head in Gynecology this year, while such Headships in other branches are continued, demonstrates that a radical change in gynecology is contemplated, which was not at all consistent with the existence of a Division of Gynecology and if so then such change was not permissable during the life of our contracts, and T H E R E F O R E B E IT R E S O L V E D that we, the members of the Gynecological Staff of the University of Illinois, do hereby express our regret at the hasty and i l advised action of the Administration in doing away with the long l and well known specialty of Gynecology, that we respectfully protest against such summary treatment without consultation or notification, that we do hereby express the belief, based upon observation and judgment that both gynecology and obstetrics will advance more certainly by the specialties being kept separate. In support of this opinion we would submit that nearly all the outstanding figures, either in obstetrics or gynecology, in this country have been men teaching in one department or the other and not in both. W e would further submit that two men have been employed at the University of Iowa, one to teach obstetrics and one to teach gynecology. W e are not able to see why gynecology is being forced into a backward position in the University of Illinois Medical School, in using it to combine with another specialty, to make one specialty larger than any one man has mastered or can master. Resolved further that we do hereby petition the Dean, the President, and the Board of Trustees to continue gynecology as it has been during the University period of the school's existence, namely as a separate division, as are some of the specialties, or better still, as a separate department as are the Departments of Ophthalmology and Dermatology. Resolved further that a copy of these resolutions be sent to the Board of Trustees, the President of the University, the Dean of the Medical School, and given such other publicity as circumstances may warrant. F. Lee Stone Channino W. Barrett E. W. Fischmann A. F. Lash G. L. Hoffman L. A. Juhnke J. E. Fleischner John M. Lang Dean Davis recommends that no change be made i the present organizan tion of the department and that there be no separate Division of Gynecology. Concurring in his recommendation, I recommend that the President of the University be instructed to acknowledge this resolution and to inform the signers that the Board does not see its way clear to establish a separate, independent Department or Division of Gynecology. D e a n Davis, w h o w a s present, m a d e a statement concerning this matter. O n motion of M r . Barr, this recommendation w a s adopted unanimously. CASH PRIZE OFFERED BY PROFESSOR ROLFE (16) Professor C. W . Rolfe, Professor of Geology, Emeritus, has offered a prize of $250 for the most valuable contribution towards a new, better, or increased utilization of any natural resources of the State of Illinois. Unpublished results of study and papers or books published since January 1, 1926, may be offered in the competition. The purpose of the prize is to stimulate a more general interest in the natural resources of the State. cepted thisreport the s received for m e by the Board of Trustees, I have acActing under w a authority given record. This offer.