Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1946 [PAGE 644]

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1945]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

637

students under University controL It is proposed to sub-lease these houses to managers who will operate them under University regulations and control. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees authorize its officers to execute contracts for leases for the use of these houses. T h e Provost and the Comptroller commented on this matter. O n m o t i o n of M r . W i l l i a m s o n , t h i s m a t t e r w a s r e f e r r e d t o t h e C o m p t r o l l e r a n d t h e D e a n of S t u d e n t s w i t h p o w e r t o a c t .

CHANGE IN ACADEMIC CALENDAR

(18) T h e present academic calendar for the colleges and schools at UrbanaChampaign was adopted by the Board of Trustees on November 27, 1942, on recommendation of the University Senate, as a war-time measure and in further acceleration of the University's educational program. T h e action specified that beginning in June, 1943, and for the duration of the war, the basic operation of the departments of the University at Urbana-Champaign shall be with three equal terms per year, each term to be sixteen weeks in length (including final examinations) and each equivalent in the amount of instruction and credit to the former eighteen-week semester. T h e action further provided for a summer session of eight weeks to run concurrently with the first half of the summer term. T h e University Senate now recommends that this war-time schedule be discontinued and that the University reconvert its academic calendar to the former schedule of two eighteen-week semesters. T h e Senate has recommended tentatively that the summer session for 1946 be an eight-week session. T h e question of a possible twelve-week summer session in 1946 was referred t o the Committee on Educational Policy for study and later report to the Senate. This is in recognition of a possible request from veterans for a longer summer term in order to comply with the provisions in the "G. I. Bill of Rights Act" relating to subsistence pay during vacation time. T h e Division of Special Services for W a r Veterans also has full authority to establish special programs for veterans whose needs are not served by the conventional University program. In order to conclude the present V-12 program, it will be necessary to provide in the summer of 1946 a sixteen-week session for students who are in the final semester of this program and for certain advanced undergraduate civilian engineers. Aside from other considerations it is highly desirable that the academic calendar provide for synchronizing the civilian and the Navy training programs. At present the University is operating three academic programs on different schedules: (1) the regular University program for civilian students, sixteenweek t e r m s ; (2) the Navy V-12 program, sixteen-week terms but not synchronized with the program for civilian students except for upperclassmen in the College of Engineering; (3) the Army Specialized Training Reserves program, twelve-week terms. On August 13 and 14, 1945, University officials negotiated with representatives of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, United States Navy, for the establishment of a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit. T h e Navy Department had previously selected the University of Illinois as one of the institutions at which new N.R.O.T.C. units are to be established. The negotiations covered all phases of such a program, including educational policies, instructional facilities, and fiscal relations. It is proposed to establish the N.R.O.T.C. unit at the University of Illinois on November I, 1945, in conjunction with the Navy V-12 program. T h e latter will be continued for at least two terms and will gradually change over to the N.R.O.T.C. program. No civilian students will be accepted for this program for the time being.

On motion of Mr. McLaughlin, this matter was referred to the President of the University and the University Senate to work out a twelve-week summer term, open to all students, with a program of class hours equivalent to the number of hours in the sixteen-week session.