Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1968 [PAGE 1130]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1078

BOARD O F TRUSTEES

[June 19

T h e third addition to the Digital Computer Laboratory is to be occupied by the Department of Computer Science. This Department is experiencing an explosive demand for its teaching, research, and service programs from students and staff at all levels and disciplines in the University structure. Enrollment demands are greater than can be met with existing facilities, and are expected to increase sharply; research activities are creating I L L I A C IV, a machine that will have an arithmetic capacity of approximately one billion multiplications per second; and demands for departmental service in interdisciplinary programs are increasing rapidly. Since present space -will become critically overcrowded before this proposed addition is completed, planning funds should be provided immediately so as to minimize the delays in getting the project under construction when funds become available. T h e present request would provide for the architectural services required for federal construction grant applications and for bid documents. T h e cost of these services is estimated at $339,000. The Department of Geology currently occupies obsolete and functionally inadequate space in the Natural History Building. T o relieve temporarily these inadequacies, several areas assigned to the Department have been remodeled; but the extent of the remodeling required to provide the amount and kinds of space needed by a modern Department of Geology would cost more than the construction of a new facility. With the changing emphasis in geologic training and research, close ties are developing between geology and other sciences. The sum of $432,000 is the estimated cost of the architectural services required for federal construction-grant applications and for bid documents. The College of Education is scattered in eighteen buildings distributed over the Urbana-Champaign campus, with the majority of the special education and research activities being conducted in old houses that have only minimal facilities because they are scheduled for razing. To meet the increasing demands for undergraduate and graduate enrollment, several units of the College have been moved from the existing Education Building into temporary quarters acquired by the University on the perimeter of the campus. A new College of Education Building, similar and adjacent to the present Education Building completed in 1964, would improve the efficiency of communication between various widelyseparated groups and eliminate the space wasted in duplication of staff and files in each old house. Consolidation of the instructional, research, and service programs of the College of Education would enrich and improve these programs, and also enable the College to meet its increasing enrollment and service demands. It is estimated that the sum of $327,000 would meet the architectural costs required in preparing federal construction-grant applications and bid documents. Remodeling, Rehabilitation, and Minor Additions $3 000 000 T h e needs for remodeling far exceed the amount requested, but recent experience indicates that $3,000,000 represents an amount of work that can be effectively programmed and completed within a biennium. Projects that will be considered for these funds fall into four general categories: (1) major remodeling needs ($785,000); (2) minor remodeling requests ($965,000); (3) minor additions ($750,000); and (4) building-rehabilitation ($500,000). The major remodeling projects to be considered include such items as renovating the space to be vacated by the Departments of Civil Engineering and Psychology upon completion of their new buildings, upgrading space for the proposed first-year medical program, and remodeling the Digital Computer Laboratory for I L L I A C IV. The minor remodeling items include numerous projects requested by academic departments ranging in cost from $5,000 to $50,000 which are urgently needed. Probable minor-addition projects include a feed-storage facility for the College of Veterinary Medicine, the relocation of the meats laboratory from Davenport Hall, and the further development of a low-cost, metalbuilding complex south of the main campus. T h e building-rehabilitation request includes electrical modernization, lighting improvements, elevator installation and modernization, and heating-system modernization for many of the older buildings on campus. In relation to the total physical plant at the Urbana-Champaign campus, the above described request is a modest one.