Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1956 [PAGE 930]

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1956]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

927

1. By 1962 there will be a need for new housing units for 9,109 students: 5434 for increased enrollment (from present enrollment of 18,075 to predict enrollment of 23,509 in 1962-63) ; 1,475 to replace temporary barracks units; and 2,200 to replace other housing facilities not approved by the University as to physical standards. 2. The program proposed will house 8,662 students — 447 less than the estimated need. 3. The estimated cost of construction for this program is $36,800,000. The total financial requirement — construction and interest over a twenty-five year period — is estimated at $51,981,750, which will be financed from rental income of $29,707,250 and the use of receipts from tuition for the balance of $22,274,500. 4. The cost to the University (aside from rental income) will average less than a million dollars a year during the twenty-five year period of repayment. When indebtedness is paid off the University will have title to residence halls valued at $36,800,000, based on construction costs, for an investment of just a little more than half this amount — $22,274,500. 5. Under the schedules proposed, no tuition will be pledged to finance a particular residence hall until that unit is actually put into operation. Before the building is occupied, interest on borrowed money will be charged to construction funds. Therefore, the General Assembly will not need to appropriate tax funds to offset tuition pledged until each unit is in operation and producing rental income. (The General Assembly in its 1955 session passed enabling legislation to permit the allocation of receipts from tuition to help underwrite construction of buildings as here proposed. A further aid in financing the construction of such facilities is the program of the federal government which provides funds at low interest rates for part of the loans.) 6. This construction program will not replace approved private housing now in use. At any time that the community's supply of student housing is altered, the University's program will be adjusted accordingly. 7. The increase in enrollment will create increased demands for faculty housing. Since it is anticipated that the community will meet these needs, the program makes no provision for such housing. The plan here presented has been recommended by the Residence Halls Planning Committee and approved by the University Building Program Committee, and is based upon conservative estimates of population and enrollment trends. Illinois, like other universities across the land, must get ready for the upsurge in student enrollments occasioned by the increases in population. In planning for the future, it is assumed that the people of Illinois will expect their State University to admit eligible students and will want them to live in quarters that meet the minimum standards of safety, health, and study conditions. Campus living is a part of the educational experience of the student, and the University has a direct obligation to establish standards and maintain them. That more than three thousand students are living in quarters not meeting University standards, that hundreds of women students are turned away because of lack of living quarters, and that untold numbers are discouraged from even trying to attend the University because of reports of inadequate housing is a situation to be deplored. Its remedy should have a first priority upon our attention.

DAVID D. HENRY

President The complete program, as presented, has been printed as a brochure for public distribution. Copies of it were submitted in advance of the meeting to the Board of Trustees and a copy is hereby filed with the Secretary of the Board for record. Copies have been distributed to all University officers concerned and a number are being deposited in the University Library.

Following discussion of this plan, in which all of the Trustees present participated, Mr. Herrick moved approval of this program as a basis for planning, and this motion was adopted.

LEASE OF HOUSING FOR UNDERGRADUATE W O M E N (19) T h e call for bids on a site and construction of student-staff residences included an invitation to bidders to submit proposals to construct for the University housing for unmarried undergraduate women students to be available for occu-