Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1962 [PAGE 77]

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74

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[ J u l y 26 services throughthe need, Thev kind of program their University

and if it is to continue and expand research functions and provide out the State, the figures presented were realistic measures of represented the best estimate of cost that could be given for the that the people of Illinois have shown they want and expect from

T a b l e I. T e n t a t i v e S u m m a r y of t h e 1959-69 Building P r o g r a m (All amounts are in millions of dollars based on July 1, 1959, estimate of cost) Chicago Chicago Period UrbanaUnderProfesTotal Champaign graduate tional Division CoUeges Two-Year Program 1959-61 38.1 10.0 6.7 54.8 1961-63 24,5 35.0 B.9 68.4 Four-Year Program 1959-63 (62.6) (45.0) (IS.6) (123.2) 1963-65 20.0 5.0 6.9 31.9 1 1965-67 17.4 5.5 22.9 1 1967-69 16.0 4.5 20.5 Ten-Year Program Total 116.0 50.0 32.5 198.5 Anticipated E n r o l l m e n t I n c r e a s e s T h a t an unprecedented number of students will want to enroll in onr colleges and universities within the next ten to fifteen years hardly needs demonstration at this date. T h e accelerated building of public schools (lower grades) to take care of our present school age population is everyday evidence of what is to come at the University level. The report of the President's Committee on Education Beyond the High School finds that enrollments will double. The Illinois Commission of Higher Education made a detailed study of the outlook for Illinois and arrived at the same conclusion. The present highest enrollment in all time at the University of Illinois is indicative of the trend of greater enrollments all over the State and the nation. This is further emphasized by the fact that this record enrollment comes from the numerically lowest college-age group in the past twenty-five years. The enrolled students represent children born during the period when marriages and birth rates reached their lowest point. T h e reason for the current record level of college enrollments in spite of the small total number from which the students are drawn is that the proportion of college-age youths who go to college has been dimming rapidly. When this increased ratio of actual to potential enrollments is applied to the college-age population for the decade 1960-70, it is very plain that y e must plan for approximately twice as many college students in 1970 as in 1958. However, it is imperative that construction and planning proceed as rapidly as possible, inasmuch as studies based on increased marriages, births, school grades in the public schools of Illinois, and students going to higher educational institutions indicate that the expected increase of students between 1959-60 will be the largest addition ever made in Urbana in one year. For subsequent years through 1962, two additional increases are expected although uot as substantial as the 1959-60 increase. In 1963 or 1964, the best estimate available to date indicates another substantia] increase somewhat comparable to and possibly exceeding the record level expected in 1960. It is during this period that we may expect the results of the large jump in the births for the State that happened between 1945 and 1946. T h i s trend of greater and greater enrollments, in the face of approaching limits of utilization of space and the ability to take more students, again points out the need to provide funds immediately for the construction and planning o: new buildings. Building N e e d s of t h e University Although the University of Illinois has a large and imposing campus, it now' has serious space deficiencies, ,. E The University, with its ever increasing numbers of students and exparia » staff to teach these students, has been accumulating a building backlog over

1 Additional hinds will be required when the enrollment exceeds 6,000 students, some o whom may be juniors and seniors.