Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - 16 Years (Edmund James) [PAGE 249]

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Tlie Colleges and Schools

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A request was therefore made of the legislature at the session of the 45th General Assembly, in 1905, for an appropriation to enable the University of Illinois to purchase the plant whioh it had leased from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, or to construct or acquire some other plant. The legislature appropriated by a large majority (thirty against six in the Senate; eighty-nine against forty in the House), the sum of $386,000 for the purpose of acquiring by purchase or by construction, a medical plant. The Governor vetoed this appropriation bill, along with several others, on the ground that the legislature had exceeded the amount of money available for appropriations. Another attempt was made to carry on the medical department on the basis previously accepted. But it was again made evident that this could not be done. In 1911, therefore, the University once more asked the legislature for an appropriation: this time an appropriation of $100,000 per annum for the maintenance, extension and development of the medical school. The legislature by a large majority (unanimous in the House and thirty to two in the Senate) granted sixty thousand dollars per annum, and the Governor signed the bill. However, certain persons who were opposed to the idea of state support in medical education, brought suit to set aside the appropriation on the ground that the provision of the constitution in regard to the passage of bills had not been strictly observed. The court sustained the contention and the University lost the money. It became evident to the College of Physicians and Surgeons that the University would probably find it difficult to carry out the financial obligations involved in the payment of the lease, and it therefore gave notice to the Trustees of the University of Illinois that it would no longer lease its medical plant to the University of Illinois. Being thus deprived of the plant which it had been using for fifteen years and having no money with whioh to hire or construct another, the University was compelled to close its medical school; whioh it did on the 30th day of June, 1912.