Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1958 [PAGE 385]

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382

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[April 18

LEGISLATION RELATING TO CHICAGO UNDERGRADUATE DIVISION

President Livingston called attention to the following bills for legislation and a resolution relating to the Chicago Undergraduate Division introduced in the Seventieth General Assembly of Illinois:

Senate Bill 175 to amend a present law which authorizes the establishment and operation of a branch of the University of Illinois in Chicago by providing that the branch of the University in Chicago shall offer undergraduate curricula and award appropriate degrees which shall correspond as closely as possible to the undergraduate curricula and degrees available at the University at Urbana. House Joint Resolution 25 creating "a committee consisting of 3 members of the House of Representatives appointed by the Speaker, and 3 members of the Senate appointed by the Committee of Committees: provided, no more than 2 members from each house shall be of the same political party. The committee shall confer with the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and any person or persons employed by said board in conducting research regarding the establishment of a permanent site for the Chicago Undergraduate Division of the University of Illinois for the purpose of determining the extent and the results and findings of any study conducted by the board or persons employed by the board; the problems which the board has already encountered and the problems to be incurred in relocating the Chicago Undergraduate Division; the requirements which anv proposed site must meet in order to merit the board's approval and the criteria by which the board determines the desirability of any site; the sites which the board has found to be satisfactory as a permanent location for the Chicago Undergraduate Division, including the board's order of preference for such sites and reasons therefor; and the sites which the board has found to be undesirable and the reasons therefor. T h e committee shall report its findings and recommendations to this General Assembly as soon as possible, but not later than April 30, 1957." House Bill 611 to authorize the Board of Trustees to acquire property for a permanent site for the Chicago Undergraduate Division in the city of Chicago and making appropriations of $3,750,000 for this acquisition, and $250,000 for educational, architectural, and engineering plans. This Bill would specifically authorize the acquisition of a site "in the City of Chicago" which presumably would require that any land acquired for this purpose would have to be within the city limits.

After discussion of these proposals, Mr. Bissell presented the following statement as representing the consensus of the Board with respect to Senate Bill 175:

T h e Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois has considered Senate Bill No. 175 of the Seventieth General Assembly. According to the bill, "the trustees of the University of Illinois are directed to establish and operate a branch of the University in the City of Chicago, which shall provide for undergraduate curricula and award appropriate degrees which shall correspond as closely as possible to the undergraduate curricula and degrees available at the university proper at Urbana, Illinois." The Board of Trustees is sympathetic with the objective of establishing a full branch of the University, located effectively to serve commuting students from the Chicago area, when the need for extension of the present program is fully established and when resources are provided by the General Assembly. The Trustees believe the first task, however, is the provision of a permanent facility for the present two-year program, located at a site and built in a way to permit expansion. A recommendation to this end has been submitted to the Governor and the General Assembly. T h e Trustees believe, therefore, that the directive proposed in Senate Rill 175 for the Board now to present a program for a full-scale branch is unnecessary. T h e replacement of the Navy Pier facilities will require five or six years in planning and building, a period sufficient in which to decide appropriate next steps. Further, the Trustees believe the present language of the bill is unwise in that it is unnecessarily restrictive as to site and would require a duplication of programs without regard to necessity, or to relationships with other institutions in Chicago and to the programs available at Champaign-Urbana. Such unplanned and