Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1938 [PAGE 286]

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284

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[June 9

SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM (22) T h e Illinois Press Association at a meeting held on May 15, 1937, adopted the following resolution: R E S O L V E D : That the Illinois Press Association, in convention assembled in the Sherman Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, May 15th, 1937, does hereby request the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois to immediately change the name of " T h e School of Journalism" to "The College of Journalism," thereby complying with the requirements of House Bill number 285, approved by the Illinois Legislature June 17, 1927, and duly signed by the then Governor of the S t a t e ; that our request for this formal change in the name of the Journalism course is based on our desire to have the teaching of Journalism placed on an equal basis with Law and Medicine as was clearly intended by the wording and intent of said law as sponsored by the Illinois Press Association. This same question has been raised by the Director of the School of Journalism, but no action has been taken by the Board. T h e University Counsel has secured from the Attorney-General the following opinion covering the interpretation of the statute: J u n e I, 1937 Hon. Sveinbjorn Johnson, Legal Counsel University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

DEAR SIR:

I have your letter of recent date, in which you call my attention to the title to "An Act establishing a college of journalism at the University of Illinois, and making an appropriation therefor." You also quote the first two sections of this act, which use the words "college of Journalism," and say the question has been raised, whether, in view of this act, the board of trustees is justified in calling the "institution established" a "school of journalism" rather than a "college of journalism." You also call my attention to certain minutes of the board of trustees which refer to this department as a "school" rather than as a "college," and ask, "in what sense did the legislature use the word 'college,' which appears three times in the bill,—once in the title and once in each of its two sections?" In this connection I call your attention to the fact that the words "college of journalism" appear not only in the title and the two sections of the act to which you refer, but also in the third section of that bill, as originally enacted (Laws of Illinois, 1927, page 184), which appropriates $30,000 for the biennium (July 1st, 1927, to June 30th, 1929), for the purpose of establishing "such college." There are many definitions of "school" and "college." A "school" may mean (1) "any place of learning"; (2) "a place for instruction in any branch or branches of knowledge"; (3) "the institution or the collective body of teachers and learners in such a place"; or (4) "a faculty or institution for specialized higher education, usually within a university, as a medical or law school, a school of education." "In the case of a university with but a single (or a single surviving) college, the terms 'college' and 'university' become practically synonymous Finally, 'college' is applied to an institution of higher learning affiliated with a university. In the United States, the college is primarily an institution of higher learning, receiving approved graduates of preparatory schools and offering instruction in arts, letters and science, leading to the Bachelor's d e g r e e ; there is, however, no clear line of demarcation, as institutions have retained the name college while extending their instruction to university scope. In the universities, the name college is usually given to the division of the institution which provides instruction in the liberal arts and sciences, leading to a Bachelor's degree; in some universities, the various divisions, including graduate and professional schools, are named colleges." (Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd ed.) In other words, in one sense a "school" may be an institution, teaching any branch or grade of learning, that is, elementary high school, academy, college or university, while a "college" is limited to those schools which offer higher