Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1976 [PAGE 308]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1975]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

297

Such guidelines and objectives should include current investment objectives for each group and specific guidelines to accomplish investment goals. T h e Committee further believes that the bank acting as investment adviser for endowment funds should continue to act in an advisory capacity only.

PARK LIVINGSTON, Chairman WILLIAM D. FORSYTH, JR. RALPH C. HAHN GEORGE W. HOWARD I I I

O n m o t i o n of M r . L i v i n g s t o n , a c t i o n s t a k e n by t h e C o m m i t t e e w e r e approved.

Urban Solid Waste-"Biogas" Research Project, Urbana 1

(32) The United States Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) has requested a proposal for the design, construction, and operation of a pilot plant to produce methane gas from urban solid waste. T h e University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, together with Chemico Process Plants Company, a division of Chemical Construction Corporation (Chemico) of New York, has developed such a proposal — the Biogas Project. Under the proposed project, the University would grant to ERDA and to Chemico, subject to award of a contract by ERDA, the right of access and the right to use University property located on the A.T.&T. Road (east of U.S. Route 45 in Urbana Township) and the building located on that land to construct the necessary facilities. T h e assignment for the use of University property would last for a period of approximately four years. T h e University's role will be that of subcontractor with primary responsibility for the research phase of the project; viz., "the operation and maintenance of the facility and the execution of the proposed experimental p r o g r a m . . . " The University may also benefit from the project in potential savings on fuel costs. T h e product of the Biogas process is a combustible mixture which can be used to heat several boilers on the campus as a supplement to high cost fuel. The demonstration plant will also aid the University in its research on ways to meet the nation's energy needs. Upon completion of the experimental phase of the project, it is anticipated that title to the pilot plant will be vested in a public body. It is possible the University would receive the title. T h e local community would also benefit, in that the residue from the process would require considerably less landfill area than the solid wastes used to feed the process. T h e Chancellor at the Urbana-Champaign campus has recommended that the Board approve the University's participation in this project. I concur and further recommend that the Comptroller be authorized to negotiate a subcontract along the lines described above, subject to approval by the Board of Trustees, or by the Executive Committee of the Board, and subject to further action by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

President Corbally asked Chancellor Peltason to review this item and to introduce community groups or others who had asked to appear before the Board in opposition to the recommendation. Mr. Neal explained that, in permitting such an appearance, the regular procedures of the Board were being waived. Following the Chancellor's summary, Mr. Don H. Livingston, President of the Lake Park Association in Champaign, and Dr. M. T. Davisson, Professor of Civil Engineering and a resident of the Lake Park District, spoke to express their opposition to the project, in particular, to its loca1

For further information, see also June 18, 1975, minutes.