Repository: UIHistories Project: UI Foundation Series - Need for Student Union (1937) [PAGE 5]

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broader educational opportunities for, and service to, its students and alumni and to the citizens of the State of Illinois by encouraging gifts of money, property, etc. •. • ; to receive, hold and administer such gifts • • • , and to do such other acts and undertake such other enterprises as in the judgment of the Board of Directors shall tend to promote the interests and welfare of the University of Illinois." The University of Illinois Foundation is a non-profit corporation of the State of Illinois, Since a majority of the members of the Board of Directors are alumni elected by the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association, and since these latter are in turn elected by the members of the Association, the Foundation is your agent, an Illini Chest, to do the things which will most benefit our Alma Mater,

PRESIDENT WILLARD ENDORSES ILLINI PLAN

XJROM its modest beginning on March 2,1868, with fifty students and three members of -*• the faculty, the University has developed into one of the leading state universities of the country, with a history of public service of which its more than 132,000 alumni, both graduates and former students, may well be proud. The University, by the same token, has reason to be proud of its alumni. N o institution has been more fortunate than the University of Illinois in the unfailing loyalty and support it has received from its alumni body. The Illini spirit has become a national tradition, "True to this tradition and with characteristic enthusiasm the alumni have lately launched a well-conceived plan of assistance to the University which has my hearty approval.

The Library, the heart of the University, was built in three units from 1924 to 1929 and houses over a million volumes* This building also houses the Library School

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Its objective of continuous alumni activity in many communities cannot fail to stimulate that reciprocal interest between the University and its alumni which is so important to the institution. One of the objectives of this plan is the creation and maintenance of a permanent fund to assist the development of the University and to improve its educational and scientific work in various ways. Among the University's needs are: A U n i o n Building; endowments for scholarships to aid undergraduate students of superior scholastic ability and possessing those qualities of character which make for leadership; endowments of professorships; and other provisions, I should like to discuss briefly the need for a U n i o n Building, "The University student body, together with the members of the administrative, technical, and instructional staff, comprises more than 13,500 individuals who have no single, common social or campus community center open and available to all, regardless of membership in fraternities or sororities, or any other organized association. There are no Dr. Arthur Cutis Willard headquarters for visiting alumni, or for the hundreds of mothers and fathers who visit the University both before and after their sons and daughters become students, to say nothing of other daily visitors, "As a result, the lack of a student and faculty social center in such a large institution as the University of Illinois has become, in my opinion, a major problem, demanding the serious consideration of all university officials, alumni, and friends of the institution. For more than twenty-five years, beginning with President Edmund Janes James, such a project as a 'Union Building,' the usual designation for a student, faculty, and alumni social center, has been under discussion at the University of Illinois, During this period, practically every large university in our mid-continent area has successfully financed and built such a building, "In the present situation, the University of Illinois is not only at a distinct disadvantage among other mid-continent universities, but also is not serving its students, faculty, and alumni in an important field now generally recognized as an essential function of modern university life and administration, "In the matter of endowed scholarships, the University is at a great disadvantage. Many of the best graduates of the high schools in Illinois are being attracted to other institutions because these institutions are awarding valuable scholarships to Illinois high school students of unusual ability. Such individuals raise the intellectual level of the undergraduate student body, thereby making it possible for the faculty to improve the instructional work of the University, and develop stronger courses and superior graduates. Students of superior scholarship enhance the prestige of an institution just as outstanding scholars and scientists bring distinction to its faculty, "Therefore, as President of the University, I commend the Illini Foundation Fund and its objective to your attention, with the confidence that they will receive the careful consideration they deserve,"

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