Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1928 [PAGE 87]

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84

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[July 7

successful, although the unanticipated increase in attendance in Medicine has interfered with the program. It is m y belief that the plan can be continued for a time yet, certainly for the next biennial period. I a m therefore recommending that the total of the University's next legislative budget shall be the same as it was in the past three biennial periods. I will lay before you at a later meeting, after further conference with m y colleagues m y view of the adjustments necessary within the total above referred to, as between operation and building, to meet the conditions of the coming biennium. Y o u have heard the expressions of opinion of our Deans. I have had from some of them even more ample statements of what they think their various colleges and departments need in order to reach their ideals. Y o u will note from what you heard them say that the minimum proposals which they laid before you for the coming biennium involve for operation and for buildings an amount of money in excess of what could be provided within the total that w e have been asking. The addition which the Deans' requests would make necessary to the next biennial operating budget would be something like $720,000, a sum in excess of what we can fairly ask for. Their minimum building proposals for the next biennium would require over three millions. O n the building side, as I have several times pointed out to you, the requests made by the different colleges and schools at other times have aggregated from £5,000,000 to $6,000,000. A much larger amount than they presented to you for the biennium is, of course, in the minds of the authorities of the various colleges and schools as necessary in the early future for their various needs. But we must keep close to immediate needs. In some departments of the University we are bound to utilize more completely the resources we have, in room and equipment, before we ask the public to spend more money on them. W e have spent on Agriculture for buildings alone, since 1921, nearly $1,200,000. The College of Commerce is now adequately housed for a considerable time. The developments in Chicago have furnished much larger and better facilities for the College of Medicine and the School of Pharmacy. Our medical people think we need another medical building. Yet there is reason to believe that it is unnecessary to ask at the present time for another building for the College of Medicine. A n adjustment of the medical program will probably make possible a utilization of the space vacated in the old medical building so as to provide for from thirty to fifty more freshman students than w e now take care of. That will relieve the pressure. The necessary changes and equipment in the laboratories can be provided as soon as w e have a definite statement from the Supervising Architect and the Dean showing what is necessary. With reference to requests for further agricultural appropriations, I would call attention to the fact that the enrollment in the College of Agriculture is only about half of what it was in 1919-20, being for this year 673. With a decrease in the number of students has come a decrease in the instruction. Yet the expenses of the College and Experiment Station have kept mounting because the time and equipment and 6pace released by the diminishing number of students have been constantly transferred to enlarging the Experiment Station work. For the College of Engineering, whose enrollment this year is about the same as it was in 1920-21, although less than it was in the year preceding and the year following that year, not much has been done in the way of additional physical accommodations. The Transportation Building was finished some four or five years ago and the new building for the Department of Architecture is now under way. There are certain lines of work in engineering that need additional relief. Those in most pressing need are Electrical Engineering and the Hydraulics and Materials Testing Laboratory. The University is in constant need of additions to its service buildings; that is, class rooms, laboratories, and offices, as is shown by the increase of students. This is a statement of the fact, not a guess or a hypothesis. The Supervising Architect prepares for m e square tne yearclass andandthat fortwenty-five against ago. in in the preper as years 134.7 class rooms ceding year, 144.4 m feet statements this laboratories. His latest figures showlaboratory each student space and year 129.7 frequently of before showing ourspace capita w e hadin The present 266.3 actual use