Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1962 [PAGE 314]

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1961]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

311

program for the initial stage of development of the Chicago Undergraduate Division on its new campus.

Recommended Policies and Plans Concerning the Proposed Expansion

of the Chicago Undergraduate Division The recent appointment of the Vice-President for the Chicago Undergraduate Division and the expected choice of a site in the immediate future make it appropriate now lo outline the broad educational objectives of the expanded institution, to clarify its prospective organizational status within the University of Illinois, and to describe the general nature of the educational program to be offered. It is expected that the planning and construction of buildings will proceed on a schedule that will allow the Chicago Undergraduate Division to open the fail session of 1964-65 on the new campus. I. Objectives "" The fundamental purpose of the University in establishing a center of higher education in Chicago has been to bring to a metropolitan area with more than half the population of the state a broad range of educational benefits which an established state university of high quality can best provide promptly and effectively. Within this broad purpose are the following specific aims: 1. To help meet the acute demand for undergraduate education in the Chicago area created by population increases and by the rising proportion of high school graduates seeking admission to college. Even with the announced increases in the enrollments of existing institutions, including junior colleges, by 1965 there will be a serious shortage of opportunities for higher education available to Chicago's youth. 2. To give to Chicago a publicly supported institution offering degree programs in varied fields to qualified young people who can not afford the cost of attending local private colleges or public colleges away from home, or who for other reasons choose to enroll in a state university in Chicago. Aside from the enrollment emergency, too many able students would never graduate from college unless afforded opportunities in an urban nniyersity like that proposed for the new campus of the Chicago Undergraduate Division. 3. To develop an institution of higher education uniquely designed to meet the special needs of a rapidly changing metropolitan community, particularly as regards the training of specialized personnel for a wide range of occupational fields, and the provision oE research service and educational leadership, 4. To encourage the utilization of the rich resources of the metropolitan area for cultural, social, economic, and scientific-technical education. II. Organisational Status It is recommended that the Chicago Undergraduate Division be given the kind of administrative autonomy that now prevails at the Chicago Professional Colleges. The date of this administrative change would coincide with that of the iormal organization of the new colleges and divisions to be established. A time table and procedures for planning the new organizational arrangements during the interim period will be established by the President sometime within the current academic year. Appropriate codification of the University's Statutes will be made to reflect the change in organizational status, the establishment of the office of Vicepresident for the Chicago Undergraduate Division, and such other alterations as may be adopted, HI. The Initial Educational Program The fojlowing colleges and divisions are recommended as the major administrative units for the new campus during the initial phase of development. It is expected that during the academic year 1964-65 students will be accepted for the third year of undergraduate study, in addition to the continuation of the two-year Ingram now in effect at Navy Pier. The fourth year would be added in 1965-66. 1 nese developments would be subject to the availability of facilities and operating funds. I College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Undergraduate degree programs will be offered in the physical sciences and mathematics, the biological sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences. The departments to be established within Uiese four areas will be designated in the near future.