Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1970 [PAGE 50]

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50

BOASD OF TRUSTEES

[September 18

planning; public-systems program evaluation; social policy for urban development; improvements in the physical environment. Of the total of $438,200 requested for the biennium, some $82,200 would be allocated for the support of a related program in the Department of Psychology: a preschool laboratory for socially disadvantaged children — to be located near the Chicago Circle campus. This laboratory will provide an essential training facility for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and it will serve also as a setting for research in child behavior and education. Other Increases 1. Educational Assistance to Disadvantaged Students ($653,990). These funds would be used to continue and expand an experimental program of admissions, advisement, and instruction of students from culturally disadvantaged areas. A considerable amount of background experimentation on aspects of the program have been completed^ and during 1968-69 some 300 students are expected to participate in an "Educational Assistance Program" that will be a forerunner to the expanded program to be conducted during 1969-71. Federal funds have been available to support part of the preliminary work. It is proposed to increase the number of participating students to 500 in 1969-70 and to 600 in 1970-71. One hundred of this group in each year would not be eligible for regular admissions and would serve as an experimental group for testing the effectiveness of special admissions, instructional, and advisement procedures. Among the experimental or innovative procedures to be used are the following: (a) two preadmissions programs (precollege workshops and precollege conferences) ; (b) special instructional programs including intensive preparatory study in one or more areas (rhetoric, mathematics, reading-study skills development); (c) special advisement services involving both faculty advisers and such agencies as the Student Counseling Service; (d) liaison representatives in the home communities of students charged with mobilizing community resources in behalf of "high risk" students. The budget item of $302,269 per year (see Table I I ) would provide salaries for 29.9 F T E academic staff members, 3.0 F T E nonacademic employees, and funds for wages, expense, and equipment. T h e additional funds for 1970-71 only ($49,452) would permit the employment of 4.2 F T E academic staff members for a year — plus adding a small amount to the wages, expense, and equipment budget. 2. Library Acquisitions and Services ($420,000). The principal item in this request would provide $360,000 for the acquisition of new books and journals. This would represent an increase of 25 per cent over the acquisitions budget for 1968-69, but this increase is believed to be fully justified in view of these conditions: (a) increasing cost of publications (beyond the formula percentage for price increases); (b) increased cost of binding; (c) the expanding graduate curriculum; (d) rapidly growing enrollment. One of the most urgent reasons for the increase in acquisitions funds is the proposed institution of seven new doctoral programs during the coming biennium, with the prospect of still others to follow soon thereafter. The necessary reference materials should be available by the time the new graduate programs are initiated. The remainder of the request (a biennial total of $60,000) would provide the staff needed to operate the small Science Library scheduled to open in the Science and Engineering Building in 1969. The steady cost increases in library materials (at least 10 per cent per year) and the growing volume of publications will make it impossible to maintain and develop a graduate library on budget-formula allowances based on enrollment increases. It should be noted that the normal formula allotments related to enrollment and price increases will all be needed for personnel additions and for expenses other than those involved in this request. 3. Computer Center ($479,000). T h e Computer Center at the Chicago Circle campus serves two mam types of functions: (a) a teaching facility for computer courses and for instruction in other departments involving the use of computers; (b) a facility for the support of student and faculty research. N e x t to the library, such a facility is without question the most important single educational resource on this or any other university campus. The principal reason for the special request for funds for the Computer Center is that a grant from the National Science Foundation of $350,000 for the