Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1952 [PAGE 1124]

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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

1221

validity doubtful are also possibly applicable to many of the other scholarships which are being maintained in various departments and colleges of the University and which have been awarded for many years. The legal counsel therefore concludes, and rightfully so in the opinion of the committee, that the fact that no challenge has been made of the legality of any of these scholarships affords considerable assurance that those proposed in the College of Law will not be subjected to challenge in the courts as well as some evidence tending to establish their legality. Summarizing briefly, it is the conclusion of your committee that if we approve the proposal of the dean of the College of Law and concurred in by the President, there is a reasonable assurance of the legality on the part of the Board to award such scholarships. Dealing now with the principle and policy in the establishment of these ten annual scholarships in the College of Law, your committee points out i ) that there are already numerous scholarships in the various colleges, excluding the College of Law, and therefore the Board should approve the recommendation of the dean of the College of Law and the President. It is the view of the committee that this would not create a discrimination and neither would it set a precedent. 2) There seems to be, as developed by the review of this subject by your committee, a condition now prevailing in our College of Law that justifies more than a passing consideration of this proposal. The dean of the College of Law has well pointed out that there is a definite competition between our College of Law and those of Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Michigan, and those schools are draining the Mid-West area served by our college because of inducements offered to students in the nature of substantial scholarships. There can be no denying the fact that the principal mark of a good professional school is a good student body, and if our College of Law continues to be handicapped by its disability to meet the competition of colleges of law such as those mentioned, we think it can be recognized that instead of growing in stature the University of Illinois College of Law will remain at a standstill or deteriorate. The Board of Trustees, in the opinion of your committee, cannot afford to permit the area which we serve to become depleted of outstanding material for our College of Law because of the programs pursued by other schools. The establishment of these ten annual scholarships in the College of Law might well lead to similar proposals on the part of deans of other colleges, and your committee has considered this possibility and its result on the finances of the University. The answer appears obvious. The College of Law is now confronted with a problem which is affecting the future. This, so far as your committee can determine, does not exist in other colleges at the present time. When and as such condition does arise in other colleges, it is our view that we will then have to approach it from the standpoint of what is good for that particular college and in no-wise relate the present situation to what may later prevail in other colleges. We very definitely feel there is a need for these ten scholarships in the College of Law at this time if this college is to be placed in a proper position to meet competition from other law colleges; further that due to the fact there are many presently available scholarships to practically all students in other colleges, we do not feel there is any discrimination by the establishment of these scholarships. In conclusion, it is the recommendation of the policy committee, in view of the opinion rendered by legal counsel and for the reasons stated from a general policy position, that the Board approve the recommendation of the dean of the College of Law and President that these ten annual scholarships be established.

ROBERT Z. HICKMAN HERBERT B. MEGRAN W A Y N E A. JOHNSTON,

Chairman

On motion of Mrs. Watkins, the recommendations of the Committee were adopted and the Board authorized the establishment of ten scholarships to be awarded annually in the College of Law according to the plan and under the conditions recommended to the Board on July 25, 1951 (Minutes, page 843); Mrs. Holt and Mr. Nickell voted "no."