Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944
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U N I V E R S I T Y OF I L L I N O I S I025 I INTRODUCTION In order to understand the purpose of this report and the factors which determine its scope, it is necessary to know something of the conditions under which the Commission worked. On July 25, 1942, the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois by formal vote authorized the survey of the University by the American Council on Education. The Board motion stipulated that this survey: shall be to investigate the charges made against the Board of Trustees and the administration of the University of Illinois by the Attorney General of Illinois in the following press statements issued by him, and any other charges he may make, to determine their truth or falsity: "I intend to prove that since 1934 a group of hand-picked political puppets have virtually built a political empire in Champaign and Urbana and have cloaked their operations and defended their illegal activities behind the shield of education. "The University has been on the downgrade since 1934 when control was taken over by a board of trustees who were not the choice of the people but were hand-picked by the downstate democratic machine and the Kelly-Nash machine in Cook County. . . ." In order to clarify the situation it should perhaps be stated here that the two charges stated above arose out of the controversy between the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and George F. Barrett, Attorney General of Illinois. This controversy revolved around two principal issues. The first of these was concerned with the legal right of the University to pay the salary of Sveinbjorn Johnson as legal counsel of the institution. The second point at issue was concerned with the right of the selection and appointment of the legal counsel of the University. The Board of Trustees of the University and the Attorney General of Illinois each claimed this right. In the letter of July 27, 1942 from President Willard to President Zook of the American Council on Education, requesting the survey, the following statement was made: The American Council on Education is not expected to include in this survey a study of (a) the right of the Board of Trustees to appoint a University Counsel and an Assistant to the University Counsel, as [A.C.E. Report—7]
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