Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1946 [PAGE 1120]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1946]

UNIVERSITY OF

ILLINOIS

III3

mitted a tentative request for modification of that action to the Governor and to the P o s t - W a r Planning Commission, dated May 23. I am opposed to this plan of May 23 because: 1. It will mean our entire permanent housing plan will be indefinitely postponed. 2. It will completely contradict our position on housing as approved by the Board of Trustees and set forth in our request to the Governor of April 30. 3. It will appear to all students (both veterans and nonveterans) as a repudiation of our many assurances to use the present appropriation for permanent housing. 4. It will encumber the campus with many hundreds of cheap and unsightly cabins and barracks, with no evidence of any relief from permanent housing construction to replace them. I therefore recommend that the Board reconsider both the President's requests of April 30 and May 23, and formulate a new request based on the following stipulations: 1. F i x Urbana enrollment for September, 1946, at not more than 15,000 students. 2. Provide for Stadium and Skating Rink housing for men s t u d e n t s . . . .$120 000 3. Take only as many of the 975 F.P.H.A. housing units recently assigned as will bring our September housing capacity of all kinds to 15,000. Present capacity of all kinds of housing, including Federal units previously accepted, is 13,862. Additional units to house 150 married students and 988 single students would bring the housing capacity to 15,000, with costs as follows: Total cost $572 600 Less balance available in former release of $500,000 113 000 459 600 Total additional release requested for temporary housing $579 600 (This brings the total releases for temporary housing paid from the State Residence Halls appropriation to $1,079,600. T h e Board has also appropriated $40,000 for Gymnasium Annex temporary housing from the General Reserve Fund.) 4. Ask for release of balance of $1,500,000 (the Governor has previously released $500,000 for temporary housing and $64,125 for plans for permanent housing.) $356 275 5. Ask for release of balance of Contingent Fund to supplement Item 4 . . 250 950 Total additional release requested for permanent housing $607 225 (This brings the total releases for permanent housing to $671,350.) T h i s m a t t e r w a s discussed at length. P r e s i d e n t L i v i n g s t o n called a t t e n t i o n t o t h e o b j e c t i o n of t h e P r e s i d e n t of t h e U n i v e r s i t y t o t h e a c q u i s i t i o n of a n y m o r e t e m p o r a r y h o u s i n g u n i t s a t t h e e x p e n s e o f t h e appropriation for p e r m a n e n t housing. P r e s i d e n t L i v i n g s t o n also r e a d a letter f r o m a "Citizens' C o m m i t t e e " o p p o s i n g t h e u s e of t h e S k a t i n g R i n k f o r h o u s i n g . Dean T u r n e r , Director Havens, the Provost, and the Comptroller c o m m e n t e d on the matter. A c t i o n w a s d e f e r r e d u n t i l t h e r e t u r n of P r e s i d e n t W i l l a r d ( s e e page 1116). STAFF HOUSING PROJECT (27) On April 18 the Board approved in principle a proposed staff housing project at Urbana-Champaign to aid in meeting the deficiency in available residential housing which is seriously impeding the needed additions to the staff. This project has now been approved by Federal authorities, with the provision that the units are at present to be rented only to veterans, and that the University will for a time retain control over them. It has been found that the best medium for borrowing the necessary funds is through the University of Illinois Foundation. T h e Board of Directors of the Foundation has indicated its willing-