UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 1071]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944
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io68

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

fallacies in it, however, lie first in the fact that many students who graduate do not go on to graduate work and should not do so, and second that over 60 percent of the students who are taught in the undergraduate courses do not even receive the baccalaureate degree. The measure of the quality of the instruction given both these groups must therefore be in terms other than their preparation to do graduate work. It is the judgment of the Commission that the University of Illinois during the last decade has done far less than it should have done to provide means for adequate evaluation of its undergraduate instruction. As far as the Commission is aware, this does not represent a change in policy and from that point of view, therefore, does not constitute a deterioration on the part of the institution. Nevertheless, the means for such evaluation were greater in the last decade than they have ever been before in the history of higher education. QUALITY OF I N S T R U C T I O N A L MATERIALS A N D FACILITIES An institution of higher education may have well-organized curricula and may be intelligently sensitive to the proper instructional administration of these curricula, and still not be able to carry on its program as it should. Among the factors which directly bear on this situation are the kind and quality of the materials and facilities provided for instruction. The University Library In a modern university there is no instructional facility of any greater importance to the undergraduate as well as to the graduate student than the library. Any discussion of a university library naturally falls into two categories: library facilities and library service. Statistically it is a relatively simple matter to compare a university library with itself or with other libraries in the country provided figures are at hand. In size, as measured by the number of volumes, the library of the University of Illinois in 1930-31 ranked fifth with about 900,000 volumes (after Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Chicago). In 1940-41, with about 1,265,000 volumes, the Illinois library ranked in the same order as far as size is concerned. The size

[50 —A.C.E. Report]