Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1946 [PAGE 1069]

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1062

BOARD OF T R U S T E E S

[April 18

In accordance with this action these officers have executed contracts as follows: Contract I L L - V - i 1277 for 108 family dwelling u n i t s ; Contract ILL-V11287 for 108 family dwelling units. The Federal Public Housing Authority will move these units to the campus and pay part of the installation and furnishing costs. T h e University must provide engineering services, grade the grounds, construct streets, extend utilities to the buildings, and supply furniture not provided by the F.P.H.A. T h e estimated cost of the work to be done by the University is $50,000 for each of the above contracts. These costs will be paid from the $500,000 State appropriation for student residence halls. Approval of this program and ratification of the action of the Comptroller and the Secretary of the Board in executing the necessary contracts is requested. O n m o t i o n of M r s . G r i g s b y , t h i s p r o g r a m w a s a p p r o v e d a n d t h e a c t i o n of t h e C o m p t r o l l e r a n d t h e S e c r e t a r y c o n f i r m e d a s r e c o m m e n d e d . TERMINATION OF C H A N U T E FIELD HOUSING PROJECT (5) On February 14, 1946, the Board was informed that the W a r Department had authorized the use of buildings and equipment at Chanute Field to provide living quarters for war veterans at the University of Illinois. T h e Board authorized execution of contracts with appropriate Federal agencies covering the use of such buildings and equipment, and appropriated funds for operating this housing project. These facilities were made available to the University only from March 1 until mid-summer 1946, and the W a r Department reserved the right to terminate the project on thirty days' notice as a protection to the Army Air Forces training program. Provisions were made to accommodate 2,000 student veterans. The University supplied the necessary local transportation and otherwise subsidized the project so that it cost student veterans only $8.00 a month to live at Chanute Field, or slightly less than the charge for quarters in the Gymnasium Annex which was converted into a barracks type of dormitory. T h e Chanute Field project was made as attractive as possible and widely publicized, but only about 200 veterans applied for quarters, and when the second semester of 1945-1946 opened only 94 took these quarters. T h e other veterans who a few weeks ago were seeking housing accommodations either found living quarters elsewhere within a commuting radius or decided not to enroll at the University at the present time. T h e fact remains, however, that the W a r Department and the University made it possible for war veterans to attend the University and live at Chanute Field for a very low cost. No veteran who could meet the admission requirements and really wanted to attend the University was barred from coming unless it was because he could not get just the kind of housing he wanted. While the results of so much effort are meager and disappointing, the University was justified in undertaking the enterprise. H a d it not done so the University and the W a r Department would have been severely criticized for not doing everything possible to provide housing for student veterans. The problem had serious public implications. In view of the conditions under which the W a r Department made these facilities available, viz., that the project may be terminated on thirty days' notice and in any case may not be continued beyond next summer, and since so few students were living there, they have been rehoused in Newman Hall, a privately operated dormitory adjoining the campus. Newman Hall was leased by the University for housing A r m y trainees. W i t h the termination of the Specialized Army Training Reserve P r o g r a m on April 1, sufficient space was released to accommodate all veterans living at Chanute. The proposal to terminate the Chanute Field housing program and to rehouse the veterans in Newman Hall was presented to the Board of Trustees in writing by letter dated March 28, a copy of which is hereby given to the Secretary of the Board for record, and the members of the Board were asked to give their judgment on the following recommendations: 1. T h a t the Comptroller and the Director of the Physical Plant Department be authorized to terminate the housing project at Chanute Field. 2. T h a t the veterans now living at Chanute Field be rehoused in Newman Hall without additional charge. On the basis of the returns the Comptroller and the Director of the Physical