Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 791]

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788

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[December 18

tions. These were studied by a special committee of the Board of Trustees which reported to the Board on February 20, 1043, and the Board approved the committee's recommendations. (See Minutes, pages 280-282.) The President of the University has reported from time to time on the progress made and the action taken on these Commission recommendations. T o date the following have been disposed of as indicated. ( T h e numbering below corresponds to the numbers of the recommendations of the American Council on Education. In each section, the recommendations of the Commission come first, in quotation marks; the recommendations of the Board come next, in italics, and the comments and recommendations of the President of the University follow.) 1. " T h e Commission recommends that the University of Illinois make a careful study to determine whether there is not another method of selecting members for its Board of Trustees which will remove that selection and the operation of the Board, as far as possible, from partisan influences." (Recommendation of American Council on Education) The committee recommends that the Board in committee of the whole make an intensive study of the manner of the nomination of candidates for membership on the Board of Trustees. (Recommendation of special committee of the Board of Trustees, approved by the Board.) This is a matter for the Board's consideration, and the President of the University has no recommendation to make. 3. " T h e Commission recommends that the College of Liberal Arts give extended study: (1) to define clearly what the purposes of its educational program a r e ; (2) to adapt its curricula better to the needs of that group of students who drop out of the college before securing any degree; (3) to strengthen the General Division by removing its present handicaps in requirements; (4) to make the General Division an educational service unit for students in the several professional schools enrolling freshmen; (5) to set up curricula organized on the basis of the needs of the students as individuals and as members of a significantly changing environment of living." (Recommendation of American Council on Education) The committee believes that these objectives should be accomplished, and recommends that the President of the University study the matter and present his recommendations to the Board. (Recommendation of special committee of the Board of Trustees, approved by the Board.) T h e Board of Trustees has already approved recommendations from the College faculty and University Senate that (1) students in the General Division may graduate without being required to study any foreign languages; (2) students who have successfully completed two years of the prescribed courses in the General Division and then transfer to the general curriculum of the College may be considered as having completed all group requirements for graduation. The Liberal Arts and Sciences College faculty has also recommended that the certificate of "Associate in A r t s " be awarded students completing the prescribed courses in the General Division and having credit in 60 academic hours of work with a grade average of not less than C. This recommendation is now pending before the Senate Committee on Educational Policy. A special committee 1 of the Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty has been appointed to study all the other recommendations of the American Council on Education Survey Commission applying to that College. 6. " T h e Commission recommends that opportunity be given to persons in the lower faculty ranks to participate in formal discussions in the formulation of the educational policies of the several colleges, and of the University as a whole. Genuine opportunity given younger men by older ones through Senate, Faculty, Department, and Committee memberships, and a real encouragement by sympathetic cooperation would undoubtedly result in marked progress within the University in a relatively short time." (Recommendation of American Council on Education)

1 This committee consists of Professor A. E. Murphy, Head of the Department of Philosophy, Chairman; Professor A. B. Coble, Head of the Department of Mathematics; Professor Henning Larsen. of the Department of English; Associate Professor M. T. Herrick, of the Department of English (also Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, in charge of the Division of General Studies); Assistant Professor C. L. Prosser, of the Department ot Zoology; and Professor T. C. Pease, Head of the Department of History.