Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1950 [PAGE 14]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1948]

U N I V E R S I T Y OF I L L I N O I S

II

the First National Bank of Chicago) which provides that all securities representing permanent investments of the University are to be held for safekeeping by that Bank. The Statutes of the University (approved 1936) contain the following provisions:

SECTION 50B:

(1) No department shall receive any funds unless authorized by the Comptroller to do so. All funds shall be accounted for and paid over to the Bursar in such manner and at such times as the Comptroller shall direct. (2) The Bursar shall collect all moneys due the University from any source and shall turn over the same in full to the Treasurer or to the State Treasurer as required by law as soon as practicable after collection.

SECTION 50E:

(1) The Comptroller is authorized to establish and administer petty cash funds where necessary for the prompt and efficient handling of university business, providing that no single fund of more than $1,000 may be established without specific action of the Board of Trustees, and provided further that all persons in whose hands a petty cash fund is placed shall be bonded in satisfactory amount. The Board shall designate the banks in which petty cash funds may be deposited and require that persons to whom petty cash funds are advanced make deposits in the banks designated. Under this authority, the following funds have been maintained in bank accounts other than that in the name of the University Treasurer: Urbana — C. C. DeLong, Bursar, Trevett-Mattis Banking Co., Champaign $ 6 0 000 Chicago Professional Colleges — H. A. Hazleton, Business Manager, First National Bank of Chicago IS 000 Chicago Undergraduate Division — H. A. Hazleton, Business Manager, First National Bank of Chicago 5 000 Galesburg Undergraduate Division — W. J. English, Business Manager, First Galesburg National Bank and Trust Company 35 000 Cook County Experiment Station — J. P. McCollum, First National Bank of Des Plaines 200 Dairy Creamery — P. H . Tracy, Manager, TrevettMattis Banking Company, Champaign 400

$115 600

These balances are used to provide a working fund for the purchase of milk and cream by the Dairy Creamery in Urbana, petty cash advances of less than $1,000 to authorized staff members, advances to the staff for salary earned but not paid by the State Auditor, travel advances, working capital to finance the cashing of salary warrants of staff and veterans' subsistence checks, and other business functions which make necessary the availability of cash at the locations indicated. The deposit of securities for safekeeping directly with a bank and thus not in the custody or control of the University Treasurer, and the establishment of funds to provide petty cash and working capital which are also not in the custody or control of the Treasurer, are not consistent with Section 4 of the By-Laws of the Board of Trustees, as indicated above. The question recently has been raised by Mr. I. L. Porter, Treasurer, as to his personal liability in the event of a loss involving such securities or cash balances which are in fact neither in his custody nor control. The problem has been reviewed in detail by the Comptroller, Treasurer, and Legal Counsel who recommend that the By-Laws of the Board and the Statutes of the LIniversity be amended to conform to the present actual practices and needs of the University, and that thereupon an adjudication be secured from a Court of Jurisdiction to clarify the personal liability of the Treasurer under the Statutes and By-Laws thus amended in relation to the State Statute. It is therefore recommended that: 1. Section 4 of Article VI of the By-Laws be amended to read as follows: "After their receipt by him, the Treasurer of the University shall be the custodian of all funds of the University except such funds, for working purposes, as, from time to time, may be withdrawn from the custody of the Treasurer by