Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1940 [PAGE 647]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

644

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[October 20

curricula, as well as liberal arts courses, accords its students a great variety of educational disciplines and provides a better background for vocational guidance, a problem with which Smith-Hughes teachers have to contend. Training teachers of vocational agriculture in the Land Grant College will tend t o promote cooperation between them and members of the Extension Service, which is necessary for the most effective contributions of both agencies in the community. Existing facilities at the University are amply sufficient to meet the demand for Smith-Hughes teachers, and there seems no justification for increased expenditures of State or Federal funds in this field. If increased expenditures for education in agriculture are warranted, it may be shown that there is greater need for money in fields other than Smith-Hughes teacher training. F o r example, there are only about half as many practicing veterinarians in Illinois as there were twenty years ago. This decrease has resulted from lack of replacements coming into the profession in this State, and has been due largely to inability of qualified graduates of Illinois high schools to secure admittance to colleges of veterinary medicine in other States. Careful study of the veterinary situation in Illinois shows the need for some remedial action, but those who have been most concerned with the problem believe that it is desirable to consider the possibility of regionalization of veterinary colleges before asking for appropriations to increase the number of State schools in this field. In these critical times, when the States and the Federal government are struggling with serious budgetary problems, those of us who are in educational work, as well as responsible persons in the public service, should cooperate without stint with officials who face the serious task of carrying on essential governmental activities without further increasing the tax burden. W e can best do this by scanning closely every new educational program involving the expenditure of public funds, and scrupulously avoiding duplication of efforts and facilities where obviously, as in the case at hand, the public interest cannot possibly be served by such duplication. O n m o t i o n o f M r . C l e a r y , t h e P r e s i d e n t of t h e U n i v e r s i t y w a s r e q u e s t e d to s e n d to t h e G o v e r n o r a n d t o t h e m e m b e r s of t h e S t a t e B o a r d f o r V o c a t i o n a l A g r i c u l t u r e a s t a t e m e n t of t h e f a c t t h a t t h e B o a r d of T r u s t e e s c o n s i d e r s t h i s p r o p o s e d e x p a n s i o n a n u n n e c e s s a r y d u p l i c a t i o n of e d u c a t i o n a l o f f e r i n g s w h i c h is m o s t u n d e s i r a b l e f r o m a s t a n d p o i n t of public policy. STREET NAME MARKERS FOR CHAMPAIGN AND URBANA (32) T h e Association of Commerce of Urbana and the Chamber of Commerce of Champaign are raising a fund to purchase and install street name markers throughout the two cities. It is reported that the municipal governments are financially unable to perform this service. T h e two chambers of commerce are soliciting contributions from owners of properties in the area to be covered and have requested the University to make a contribution to compensate for that part of the expense which will be incurred on streets adjoining University grounds. A letter from the two organizations is hereby handed to the Secretary of the Board for record.

On motion of Mr. Cleary, the Physical Plant Department was authorized to purchase approximately 51 street markers for the street intersections adjoining the campus, and to deliver them to the local chambers of commerce for erection, at a total cost not to exceed $300.

DATE OF NOVEMBER MEETING

On motion of Mr. Pogue, the Board voted to hold the November meeting in Chicago at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, November 24, 1939.