Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1958 [PAGE 313]

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[March 12

DEPARTMENT O F MICROBIOLOGY (9) The faculty and Dean of t h e College of Medicine and the Vice-President in charge of the Chicago Professional Colleges recommend t h a t the name of the Department of Bacteriology in t h a t College be changed to Department of Microbiology effective September I, 1957. I concur.

On motion of Mr. Swain, this change was approved.

ADVISORY GRADING SERVICE FOR BOARD O F EXAMINERS IN ACCOUNTANCY (10) Under the Illinois Accountancy Law, the University of Illinois has the responsibility of examining applicants for certificates of Certified Public Accountant in Illinois and of issuing certificates to successful candidates. T h e University determines the qualifications, as specified by law, of persons applying, makes rules for their examination, and for the conducting of examinations the Board of Trustees appoints a Board of Examiners (three in number, at least two of whom must be Certified Public Accountants in this state and the third may be an accountant of such grade or an attorney skilled in commercial law). Other administrative functions of the University in the discharge of its statutory responsibilities are preformed by a Committee on Accountancy appointed from the faculty and responsible to the President of the University. T h e Board of Trustees has adopted regulations for administering the statute. Over t h e years, it has been increasingly difficult for the Board of Examiners personally t o examine candidates because of the large numbers of applicants who take the examinations, given twice a year, in May and November. In recent years the Board of Examiners found it necessary to obtain assistance in grading the papers by recruiting panels of competent Certified Public Accountants to do t h e initial grading under close supervision by the Board. The Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants has helped the Board in securing panels by calling upon various accounting firms to supply the services of their senior partners and associates. Now the Examiners are finding it extremely difficult to assemble panels of competent persons to do the preliminary grading. T h e officers of the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants feel a public, as well as a professional, responsibility in this matter. A special committee of the Society which studied the problem has recommended that the Board of Examiners be authorized to avail itself of the grading service of the American Institute of Accountants on an advisory basis as is being done in all other states with the exception, in addition to Illinois, of Maryland and New Jersey. Mr. James A. Velde, of the law firm of Gardner, Carton, Douglas, and Chilgren, Chicago, Legal Counsel for the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants and a former member of the Illinois Board of Examiners, after an exhaustive study of the law and applicable court decisions on questions of delegation of authority relating to this matter, has given a formal opinion that the Board of Examiners could validly use the Institute's grading service, the extent of such use being a matter of degree as long as the Board retains power to change the Institute's recommendations. Mr. Ralph F . Lesemann, Legal Counsel for the University, has stated: "While we are inclined to concur in Mr. Velde's opinion that the Illinois courts 'would be likely to hold' that the A.I.A.'s Advisory Grading Service may validly be used in Illinois under existing legislation if the University sees fit to authorize the Illinois Examining Board to use t h a t service, we are not convinced that the Illinois courts would so rule and regard it quite possible, although we do not deem it probable, that they might declare the use by the Illinois Board of that service illegal, even though attempted to be authorized by the University, in the absence of an amendment to the existing Act expressly conferring power and authority upon the University to author ize the Illinois Board of Examiners to use the service." He would recommend amendatory legislation of the existing statute specifically authorizing the use of an advisory grading service, or, if the University decides to authorize the Board of Examiners to use t h a t grading service under existing legislation, t h a t a test case be litigated in the courts and a decision obtained from the Supreme Court of Illinois on the validity of use of the service under existing legislation before it is actually used. However, the Board of Directors of the Illinois Society, the members of the Board of Examiners in Accountancy, and the University Committee on Accountancy do not