Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1946 [PAGE 1038]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1946]

U N I V E R S I T Y OF

ILLINOIS

I03I

programs, both on campus and through extension service, in all phases of industrial and labor relations, and to promote research in those fields. T h e appropriations made to the University by the 64th General Assembly for the biennium of 1945-1947 include provisions for these programs. F r o m time to time the Board of Trustees has received reports on this proposed program. I now submit the following "Statement of Policy and P r o gram" and a "Statement of Administrative Organization" for the Institute of Labor Relations with the recommendation that the Board approve the same. Members of the Board of Trustees have received previous reports from the President of the University concerning the development of this program, including an advance copy of the statements of policy and administrative organization now being recommended which were sent to the members of the Board on February 19. O n m o t i o n of M r . M c L a u g h l i n , t h i s p o l i c y a n d p r o g r a m w a s a p proved.

STATEMENT OF POLICY AND PROGRAM OF INSTITUTE OF LABOR RELATIONS

The University of Illinois is in process of establishing a unit for research, for public service, through extension programs, and for on-campus teaching, to be known as the Institute of Labor Relations. This unit will be under the immediate guidance of a Director, who will be responsible for the budget assigned to him by the Board of Trustees on recommendation of the President, for the selection of a qualified staff, for the development of research studies, for onand off-campus information service, and for the organization of courses of study leading to a suitable degree. It is proposed to create an Advisory Committee for the Institute, whose members shall be chosen from recognized leaders in public life, with equal representation from labor, management, and the public interest. T h e Committee appointed by the President to survey the field of possible candidates has felt that it must find a person who possesses, to an unusual degree, a suitable combination of academic training and of practical experience, especially in the area of trade unionism and collective bargaining. In addition to being an able administrator, he should be on his way toward national distinction in labor relations; he should be a man who has won and can clearly retain the full respect of both labor and management; he should be able to enlist the cooperation and support of his academic colleagues; and he should keep his attention focused on the unique contribution which the University of Illinois can make to a controversial subject, viz., the contribution of serving the public interest as well as the special interests that naturally center in an Institute of Labor Relations. Since it is owned by all the people, a state university must attempt to serve the best interests of all the people through each of the ways in which public problems are presented to it. 1. Research One of the most important activities of the Institute will be a comprehensive program of research. T h e Director and his staff should be able to inquire faithfully, honestly, and impartially into labor-management problems of all types, and secure facts which will lay the foundations for future progress in the whole field of labor relations. T h e r e should be an ample library containing, among other items, a complete collection of collective bargaining agreements, wage agreements, and materials dealing with social security plans, the history of the labor movement, and the like. A well thought out program of research dealing with collective bargaining, conciliation, mediation and arbitration, labor insurance, labor-management cooperation, and special studies of industries such as iron and steel, mining, transportation, housing, and labor union problems and policies, shall be conducted within the Institute or in the related social science departments that may be coordinated with the Institute. Consideration should also be given to closely related but less technical problems, such as those that normally would arise in the fields of law, history, sociology, social welfare administration, political science, human relations, and industrial psychology. A n important phase of activity in the Institute will be the training of research workers in the field of labor relations.