Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1954 [PAGE 1172]

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1953]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

H69

Division has been accomplished. The members of the Council represent the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Commerce and Business Administration, Engineering, the School of Physical Education, the Library, and the Student Counseling Bureau. On November 5, 1953, I met with the presidents, or representatives named by them, of the seven colleges and universities in Chicago for an informal discussion of our problems in planning for a four-year program and the ways in which such a development could affect their institutions. Trustee W. A. Johnston, Chairman of the Board's special committee on Chicago Undergraduate Division, also was present. This meeting, I believe, accomplished much in mutual understanding of common problems. I have also placed the subject on the agenda of the Joint Council of State Institutions of Higher Education in Illinois. Within the University I have appointed two committees to study related but independent problems. The first of these is a Joint Task Force on the Chicago Undergraduate Division composed of sixteen members, five from Navy Pier and eleven representing five colleges or schools on the Urbana-Champaign campus and my office. This body is charged with studying closer cooperation between the two campuses in academic work and of making recommendations concerning the possibilities of expansion of work offered at Navy Pier into the junior year. There have been several meetings of the two sections of this group and one meeting of the total body. Progress reports indicate that certain minor problems have been solved and definite advances have been made in the consideration of major problems. The second group is a five-member Committee on Future Development of the Chicago Undergraduate Division. T o this Committee has been given the task of studying the needs for expansion in Chicago and of drafting, in cooperation with other officials of the University, the educational, physical facility, and financial plans for a possible four-year undergraduate program. This Committee was appointed on November 4, 1953, and has met twice, with regular weekly meetings scheduled for the next few months. It is to make a preliminary report of findings in March, 1954, and a final one by July 1 next. The Commission on the Development of the University of Illinois in the Chicago Area, established by the Sixty-eighth General Assembly, has held one hearing at which Dean Caveny and members of his staff have testified. The Commission met on November 20, 1953, and the President of the Board and I appeared before it. Basic to all planning for the future of the University is the estimate oi future enrollments. The present enrollment at Urbana-Champaign and Navy Pier is 19,621. The Bureau of Institutional Research has supplied a conservative estimate which indicates that by 1961 there will be 26,850 youths seeking admission to the University of Illinois and by 1971 this figure will have increased to 38,300. Neither of these figures includes enrollment at the Professional Colleges. The increase in the number of persons in the college age group in these years will affect all institutions of higher education in a similar manner. However, all of the Chicago institutions have unofficially informed us that they contemplate setting a maximum enrollment not greatly in excess of present capacities which may result in still greater numbers seeking admission to the University of Illinois. The Planning Committee is working on a refinement and further analysis of the statistics so that they may prepare a more formal statement of anticipated need. Report to Joint Legislative Commission on Chicago Undergraduate Division

LLOYD MOEEY

November 20, 1953 In the fall of 1946, the University of Illinois opened a Chicago Undergraduate Division at the Navy Pier in order to meet the emergency demands for veteran enrollments following World W a r II. A lease for necessary space was executed extendible to June 30, 1954, at an annual rental of $135,7So. In order to make the space leased usable for educational purposes, it was necessary to expend approximately $1,500,000 for conversion construction and basic equipment. The academic program was designed to give the freshman and sophomore work required in the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Commerce, and Engineering, and in the