Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1964 [PAGE 219]

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174

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[October 17

funds. As a result, the instructional departments have found it increasingly difficult to keep abreast of new developments in their fields. T h e extent of the University's failure to meet such needs is indicated by the magnitude of the askings in this category from all colleges for 1963-65: $3,640,146. T h e majority of these requests represent programs that should be undertaken by an institution sueh as the University of Illinois. But partly in view of the extraordinary costs involved in the move t o the Congress Circle campus, the Budget Committee and the other administrative officers concerned with budget preparation decided that funds would be requested for only a few programs judged to be of very high priority. So the eight programs described in the following paragraphs are proposed for initiation or substantial improvement in 1963-65. A. College of Engineering 1. Physics of the Upper Atmosphere (biennial amount) $80 000 T o strengthen the University's graduate training and research in the space and atmospheric sciences. In addition to the work in other departments — heavily supported by Federal funds — 2.0 full-time-equivalent physicists are needed to provide graduate instruction and research in this central area where the University has no staff at present. The salary of a clerical employee (1.0 full-time-equivalent) and funds for expense and equipment would comprise the remainder of the budget. Outside funds in at least an equal amount would be expected for the support of research in this area, including research assistantships for graduate students. 2. Molecular Electronics (biennial amount) $60 000 T o provide staff for graduate instruction in solid-state devices and integrated electronics (including miniturization of circuits). This would permit the Department of Electrical Engineering to take fuller advantage, in its graduate training, of the new Materials Research Laboratory. Most of the cost would be met from federal funds, but the latter can not be used for instruction in regular courses. The budget item would permit the addition of 1.0 full-time-equivalent professor and 1.0 full-time-equivalent associate professor plus funds for expense and equipment. 3. Nuclear Engineering (biennial amount) $40 000 The interdepartmental program in nuclear engineering should be strengthened to take advantage of recent advances in the relatively new field of "Plasma Physics," which makes it possible to conduct fundamental studies related to the development of thermonuclear systems outside the large National Laboratories supported by the Atomic Energy Commission. T h e budget item would provide for the salary of a senior professor plus funds for expense and equipment needed in instruction. T h e greater part of the cost of the program (the laboratory facilities) would be provided from federal funds granted to the Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering and to the Coordinated Science Laboratory. B. College of Liberal Arts, and Sciences 1. Department of Linguistics (biennial amount) $121 000 The University has a relatively strong graduate program in linguistics, presently administered by an interdepartmental committee. Since there is no Department of Linguistics as such, the staff consists of faculty members from the cooperating departments (Anthropology, English, the modern languages, Psychology, Speech). It is proposed to establish a small department with a core of faculty members interested in linguistics as a fundamental discipline and also responsible for service courses in certain non-Western languages. These would include elementary instruction in Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic for the support of language and area studies, mainly in the program described below. The personnel requirement would be: 1.0 full-time-equivalent professor; 3.0 full-time-equivalent assistant professors in 1963-64; 2.0 full-time-equivalent assistant professors in 1964-65; 1.0 full-time-equivalent clerk stenographer I I I ; $1,000 for expense and equipment. In addition to the graduate program in linguistics and research in the fundamental discipline of linguistics, this department would conduct experimentation in language instruction in connection with its conduct of instruction in nonWestern languages. There would be no intention to develop instructional programs in these languages beyond the elementary level. The purpose of this