Repository: UIHistories Project: Course Catalog - 1899-1900 [PAGE 28]

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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Urbana, erected for a seminary and nearly completed, about 1,000 acres of land, and $100,000 in county bonds. To this the Illinois Central Railroad added $50,000 in freight. The General Assembly accepted this offer May 8, 1867. The state has from time to time appropriated various sums for permanent improvements, as well as for maintenance. The present value of the entire property and assets is estimated at $1,600,000. The institution was incorporated February 28, 1867, under the name of the Illinois Industrial University, and placed under the control of a Board of Trustees, constituted of the Governor, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the President of the State Board of Agriculture, as ex-ofUcio members, and twenty-eight citizens appointed by the Governor. The chief executive officer, usually called President, was styled Regent, and was made ex ofhcio a member of the board, and presiding officer both of the Board of Trustees and of the Faculty. In 1873 the Board of Trustees was reorganized, the number of appointed members being reduced to nine and of ex-ofUcio members to two—the Governor and the President of the State Board of Agriculture. In 1887 a law was passed making membership elective, at a general state election, and restoring the Superintendent of Public Instruction as an ex-oMcio member. There are, therefore, now three cx-ofUcio members and nine by public suffrage. Since 1873 the President of the Board has been chosen by the members from among their own number for a term of one year. The University was opened to students March 2, 1868, when there were present, beside the Regent, three professors and about fifty students. During the first term another instructor was added, and the number of students increased to yj—all young men. During the first term instruction was given in algebra, geometry, physics, history, rhetoric, and Latin. Work on the farm and gardens or about the buildings was at first compulsory for all students, but in March of the next year