Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 116]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1942]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

"3

T h e Committee has given much attention to this question and held a meeting on December 4th for final consideration of the subject, at which meeting was present Mr. Booz, of Booz, Fry, Allen, and Hamilton, to explain the methods of such work, and also there were present all members of the Finance Committee, the President of the Board of Trustees, the President of the University, the Comptroller, and the head of the Physical Plant Department. There was a full discussion of all the matters pertaining to this question and the Committee, therefore, now desires to make the following report. It is recommended that the President of the University be instructed to employ a competent firm to make such survey of the business operations of the University at a cost not to exceed $20,000, such firm to be Booz, Fry, Allen, and Hamilton. Respectfully submitted,

KARL A. MEYER CHESTER R. DAVIS O. M. KARRAKER REPLY FROM BOOZ, FRY, ALLEN, & HAMILTON

r. -J , * /- ri7-n j President A. C. IVillard Office of the President University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois

DEAR PRESIDENT W I L L A S D :

December 31, 1941

W e are pleased to receive the request of the Board of Trustees to proceed with a survey of the business operations of the University of Illinois. The outline which you attached to your letter covers various business operations which we shall be glad to study within the appropriation of $20,000 as stated for fee and expenses. W e shall be pleased to work very close to you personally and to your associates. As I am greatly in need of a rest, I would appreciate it if we could start this February I, by which time I expect to return to Chicago refreshed by a few weeks in Florida. Sincerely yours,

E D W I N G. Booz

2. L e t t e r of T r a n s m i t t a l of t h e R e p o r t August 1, 1942 Mr. Arthur Cutts Willard, University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois

DEAR PRESIDENT W I L L A R D :

President

In accordance with your letter of December 24, 1941, and the earlier action by the Board of Trustees of the University, we have made a survey of the business administration and organization of the University of Illinois and are pleased to submit herewith a report of findings and recommendations. In the course of our work we covered the areas enumerated in your "Tentative Outline of Departments and Activities to be Included . . . ." We interviewed all of the University's key administrators and many of their subordinates both at Urbana and Chicago. W e have checked the manner in which this personnel is organized and the manner in which it handles the many aspects of this educational business. We have studied the Athletic Association and, at your request, the Alumni Association, to inform ourselves of their methods of operation and their respective relationships to the University. W e have examined the adequacy of the organization of the University to carry on the many phases of its educational business and the adequacy of the operating departments to serve this educational business effectively. Our survey conducted over the past six months has convinced us that the University's chief difficulty lies in its unsound plan of organization. The present organization fails mainly in that it places upon you, the University's President, the impossible task of supplying leadership to and coordinating the efforts of twenty-eight key administrators, the Athletic Association, the