Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1952 [PAGE 620]

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

717

Mr. Livingston called attention to the record of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois which has been an elected board of state officials since 1889 and whose history in those sixty-two years shows freedom from domination by the executive branch of state government. Mr. Megran stated that the objections to Senate Bill 620 which are being voiced at this meeting are based solely on considerations of public policy, and he expressed the hope that there would be no misinterpretation by the public that the Trustees were moved by the effect such legislation would have on their offices. On President Livingston's request, President Stoddard commented on Senate Bill 620 as a professional worker in the field of higher education. He read excerpts from Part Two of his "Second Memorandum on the Russell Report," submitted to the Board of Trustees on March 13, 1951,1 in which he discussed four proposals for reorganizing the administration of public higher education in Illinois. He expressed the opinion that while the plan proposed in Senate Bill 620 is preferable to Alternative IV of the Russell Report,2 it is less desirable for the University of Illinois than either Proposal II or Proposal IV in his Memorandum. Comptroller Morey stated that in his observation, based upon thirty-five years of experience as Comptroller of the University and of the Board of Trustees, the record of this Board in being directly responsible to the people and the General Assembly is one of distinguished public service with complete freedom from any external domination and that it is conspicuously impressive in this respect as compared with the records of appointed administrative boards in various areas of the country.

LEGISLATION ENLARGING POWERS O F STATE AUDITOR O F PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

President Livingston brought up for discussion House Bill 467 now before the Sixty-seventh General Assembly of Illinois which would give the State Auditor of Public Accounts very broad powers over all state agencies and elected state officials, including the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, with respect to expenditures of state appropriations made to such agencies and officers. The Board of Trustees had previously received a memorandum prepared by Comptroller Lloyd Morey explaining the bill and discussing the potential effects of such legislation. President Livingston reported that on May 16, 1951, he and Comptroller Morey conferred personally with State Auditor Benjamin O. Cooper. Mr. Cooper explained the purposes of the bill from the point of view of the problems of his office. He stated that he has no intention of changing the methods of his office in dealing with the University of Illinois. The possible implications of the bill and the way in which it might be interpreted by future state auditors were pointed out to him, and he admitted that such possibilities exist.

See pages 634-638, proceedings of the Board of Trustees, March 13, 1951. "Keport of the Study of the Structure of the State Tax-Supported System of Higher Education in Illinois," made for the Governor of Illinois by a staff under the direction of the Division of Higher Education, Office of Education, Federal Security Agency.

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