Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1956 [PAGE 886]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1955]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

883

Bentley, solely because she is a member of the Negro race, to injure her reputation and to cause her to lose her position as a Staff Nurse at the Research and Educational Hospitals and had unlawfully suspended her and libeled her pursuant to that alleged conspiracy. Counsel also reported that charges similar to those made in the complaint filed in the suit against Dr. Caseley and Mr. Hartley had been sent by Mrs. Bentley or her husband to the Governor of Illinois, the United States Department of Justice, and others. H e stated that, as the result of an investigation he and other University officers have made with respect to these charges, they are convinced that they are unjustified and without foundation. H e further reported that, with the concurrence of the President of the University, he had obtained authority from the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees to employ Mr. Albert E. Jenner, Jr. of Chicago to assist him in defending Dr. Caseley and Mr. Hartley in the suit, that they have successfully opposed two applications for an injunction made by Mrs. Bentley in the suit, and that he has sent a letter to the Department of Justice replying to the letter sent it by Mrs. Bentley. Counsel informed the Board that Mrs. Bentley's suit and charges arise out of disciplinary action taken against her by Dr. Caseley and Mr. Hartley in suspending her from her University position and reviewed the events which had led up to her suspension. H e further reported that Mrs. Bentley had recently sent a complaint addressed to the President and Board of Trustees of the University charging Dr. Caseley with an alleged violation of Section 128K of Chapter 38, Illinois Revised Statutes, and requesting that an investigation of this charge be made under Section 128L of that chapter. H e explained that Section 128K prohibits any officer or employee of the University from denying to any person, on account of race, color, or religion, the full and equal enjoyment of the "accommodations, advantages, facilities or privileges of his office or services or of any property under his care" and that this complaint of Mrs. Bentley's was obviously predicated upon the theory that an alleged conspiracy to cause her to resign or be discharged from her University employment, and any suspension imposed pursuant to that conspiracy would constitute a violation of this statute. H e advised the President and the Board that, in his opinion and that of Mr. Jenner, employment at or by the University does not come within the purview of said statute and that Mr. Jenner and he are of the opinion, therefore, that the charges made in Mrs. Bentley's complaint to the President and the Board, even if taken and considered to be true, would not establish a violation of Section 128K and that an investigation of the charges under Section 128L is not required or warranted for that reason. Accordingly, he recommended that the Secretary of the Board be authorized to inform Mrs. Bentley that her complaint is not based upon grounds coming within the purview of Section 128K and no investigation of her charges will be made under Section 128L for that reason.

It was the consensus of the members of the Board that this recommendation was proper and should be adopted, and the Secretary of the Board was authorized to follow it. On motion of Mr. Swain, the Board adjourned.

A. J. JANATA

H . B. M E G R A N

Secretary

President