Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1942 [PAGE 143]

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[December 5

counts of the University for the current fiscal year on the basis of the following schedule: University accounts $3 300 Athletic Association 275 University of Illinois Foundation 500 On motion of Mr. Mayer, this recommendation was adopted.

MATTERS PRESENTED BY PRESIDENT WILLARD

The Board continued its consideration of matters presented by the President of the University.

MEMORIAL TO GOVERNOR J O H N P. ALTGELD (10) At its meeting on October 21, 1940 (Minutes, page 109), the Board was requested to consider establishing a memorial to former Governor John P. Altgeld, and the suggestion was made t h a t the College of Law building be named for him. This has been referred to the Committee on General Policy. I submit herewith a letter from the Dean of the College of Law regarding this matter.

Mr. Cleary, for the Committee on General Policy, presented the following report:

The General Policy Committee of the Board of Trustees, of the University of Illinois, recommends to the Board t h a t for the following reasons the building now occupied by the College of Law be named Altgeld Hall, and so marked by a suitable bronze plate: 1. John Peter Altgeld, as Governor of Illinois from 1893 to 1897, proved himself a man of outstanding ability, character, and courage. He was, and is, one of the great figures in the history of the state and of the nation. 2. The University of Illinois never had a more enthusiastic, a more intelligent, or a more effective friend than John Peter Altgeld. Throughout his four years as governor he fought aggressively to expand and to strengthen this University. The University of Illinois was twenty-six years old when Altgeld became governor. It then occupied four old buildings and had a faculty of forty-eight. At the end of Governor Altgeld's term, six new buildings had been provided, the faculty had been increased to one hundred and seventy, and $722,700 had been appropriated by the state legislature in response to Altgeld's urgings compared with $201,350 appropriated during the preceding four years. In the words of Dr. Edmund J. James, former president of the University, Governor Altgeld "raised this institution from a comparatively insignificant country college to the rank of a great school of learning, the foundations of which are broad and deep. He marked an epoch in the educational life and interest in this commonwealth." 3. The first new building for which Governor Altgeld sought an appropriation was a library. He wanted not only a building to house books but also a structure of outstanding architectural merit. After obtaining the necessary appropriation, he caused several sets of plans to be rejected as not sufficiently beautiful and distinctive. The building finally erected was long recognized as the most beautiful on the campus, and as the finest example of Romanesque architecture west of the Atlantic seaboard. It is this building, now occupied by the College of Law, which we propose to name Altgeld Hall. 4. As soon as he became governor, Altgeld proposed the organization of schools of law and of medicine. Later in his term he was instrumental in the addition of a school of pharmacy. The Law School project was nearest to his heart but he was unable to induce the Legislature to appropriate the necessary money. He therefore worked out a plan with President Draper by which funds under University control, other than those derived from State appropriations, could be used to initiate instruction in law. The College of Law, therefore, owes its birth directly to the foresight and determination of Governor Altgeld. The points briefly summarized above can be supported a t great length from