Repository: UIHistories Project: Booklet - Alumni Fund for the Alma Mater Statue [PAGE 8]

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The "Alurnni Fund"-- what it is and its purpose

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r i p i H E ALUMNI FUND has been created by the II University of Illinois Alumni Association "to induce universal annual giving by alumni, students^ and citizens in appreciation of the educational opportunities afforded and to encourage gifts of any size for the benefit of the University." The idea of an Alumni Fund at Illinois was first suggested by President David Kinley in January 1922 in a letter to Executive Manager Roseberry, '05, of the Alumni Association and was given the breath of life by the class of 1923, which contributed $2702 in cash to that fund as its class memorial. The Class of 1922 which had already promised to use its class memorial fund to pay the balance of the indebtedness on the University chimes had previously passed a resolution endorsing the idea of the Alumni Fund. The Alumni Fund committee of the Alumni Association appointed in 1923 by President E. E. Barrett of the Alumni Association made a report in 1924 outlining the scope of the fund. This report was approved by the Alumni Association, and an Alumni Fund Board was then appointed with Charles S. Pillsbury, '07, as its first president and Wensel Morava, '78, as honorary chair-

man. Mr. Pillsbury was succeeded in January 1927 by W. L. Abbott, '84, as president of this Board. The classes of 1924, 1925 and 1926 have added their class memorials to the Alumni Fund. With the accumulation of interest earned and with eight contributions by individual alumni the fund now amounts to $10,217.92, which is available for whatever purpose the Alumni Fund Board may decide to use it as long as it will benefit the University. The class of 1927 is now collecting cash contributions to this fund as its class memorial. The Alumni Fund Board has decided that its first project shall be the sculptural group called "Alma Mater" designed by our noted alumnus, Lorado Taft, '79— and to be erected on the University campus. The Alma Mater design has received the approval of the Board of Trustees, and the Board will later designate a site on the campus for the placing of the statuary. The Alumni and former students of the University are now called upon by the Alumni Fund Board to contribute the amount of money (estimated at about $40,000) needed to cast the group in bronze and to meet the expense of erecting it in a fitting architectural setting. /Mr. Taft is gladly contributing his services, to use his own words "as a small return for all I owe to my Alma Mater.'/ A word as to the history of University Alumni Funds at other institutions may be of interest. The Yale Alumni Fund, the pioneer of them all, was established in 1891 and was created to afford the Yale alumni and former students an opportunity to make annual cash