Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1948 [PAGE 1097]

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1096

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

^May 22

Funds are available in appropriations made by the Board of Trustees for this project. I concur and recommend that the Comptroller and Secretary of the Board be authorized to execute these contracts. On motion of M r . Williamson, these contracts were authorized as recommended. S E S S I O N O F M A Y 22, 1948 W h e n the Board convened in executive session at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, M a y 22, 1948, the following members were present: President Fornof, General Davis, Mrs. Holt, M r . McKelvey, M r . McLaughlin, D r . Meyer, M r . Nickell, M r . Williamson. Mr. Livingston took his place with the Board during the forenoon. President Stoddard was present; also D r . A. C. Ivy, Vice-President in charge of the Chicago Professional Colleges, Mr. C. R. Griffith, Provost, M r . A. J. Janata, Assistant to the President, Mr. H . E. Cunningham, Secretary, M r . Lloyd Morey, Comptroller, and Mr. W . E . Britton, Legal Counsel; also, during the open session, Director

J. F. Wright.

HOUSING AT MEDICAL. CENTER

D r . Ivy presented the following letter and discussed it.

May 10, 1048

To the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

GENTLEMEN :

With the permission of President Stoddard I should like to call a critical situation to the attention of the Board of Trustees. When I came to the University of Illinois in September, 1946, I found the staff in urgent need of housing. I took steps to remedy that situation and would have had it remedied if it had not been found that the FHA will not insure loans on housing in the Medical Center District. On several occasions I have tried to obtain an exception from the FHA and have failed. The FHA refuses to insure loans because of a "reverter clause" in the Medical Center Act. The details relative to this matter and my efforts over the last fifteen months to remedy the situation need not be mentioned, since they are irrelevant to the point I desire to make, namely, that no more time should be lost in providing staff housing as soon as it can be built. For this reason I am appealing through President Stoddard to the Board for assistance. I have observed that a private real estate concern is constructing an apartment building which provides priorities for renting the apartments to the staff members of the University of Chicago. The rentals will range from $65 for tworoom dwellings to $150 for five rooms. The building will contain 124 suites and will cost $1,000,000. The building is covered with an FHA loan of $749,000. If such an arrangement can be negotiated by the University of Chicago, I see no reason why similar arrangements can not be negotiated by the University of Illinois. A similar building located just east or north of the Medical Center District (preferably east, since that is the first slum clearance project of the Chicago Housing Authority) would meet about half of our staff needs for housing as determined by a recent survey. With the influence that the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois may exert on private capital and builders of the Chicago area, and in view of the desirability of investing near the Medical Center, I believe the construction of an apartment building on the border of the Medical Center, with arrangements similar to those obtained by the University of Chicago, could be started before September 1st. . Yours sincerely, A. C. IVY, Vice-President