Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Justification and Planning for Willard Airport (1942) [PAGE 4]

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A T Till-: M E E T I N G . Of the Hoard of Trustees on January 24, / = \ l°42 t the President of the University was authorized to request JL JA- the Governor to include in a call for a Special session of the General Assembly of Illinois an appropriation of $200,000 for the purchase of one section of land for an airport. This request has been mad' and is now under consideration by the Governor. The President was also authorized to make a survey, in consultation with the College oi Engineering and with appropriate State and federal agencies, and to report a proposal for the operation of such an airport. This report is being submitted, in accordance with that authorization, for consideration by the Board of Trustees.

I Background

The University was established by an act of the legislature creating the Illinois Industrial University in 1867, and was opened in 1868, to serve the needs of the people of the State, through education and research, for the development of agriculture and the mechanic arts. At that time . those two important industries were greatly in need of more scientific and technical knowledge than then existed, and above all there was a great lack of institutions of learning in which students could study the applied sciences and related subjects so essential to successful farming, manufacturing, and transportation. The University met this situation as best it could with a courageous and determined faculty devoted to the teaching, discovery, and dissemination of the scientific and technical knowledge so badly needed in those early days. Since its opening in 1868 the University of Illinois has developed and expanded into numerous colleges, schools, and experiment stations covering many professional fields, until it is now one ^\ the four or five largest universities in the country with an annual enrollment of 15,995 students as of March 1, 1942, and a faculty and staff of 2,838 persons. During its lifetime, it has continued to be the policy of the University to meet so far as possible the demands for new and varied

educational and research programs growing out of the rapidly changing

ocial, industrial, and professional life of the state and nation. I Air Transportation: A Major Industry

'I • most recent demand for a new program of education and research t the ('Diversity n ts squarely on the amazing growth oi air transortation all over the world. The supreme importan of lh< lirplane in v r h; ited research and developments in design, and has used a vast increase in the manufactun <f man) types of aircraft, * i) tl training i pilots and ground i rews, and in construction of AW

I* ts. 'I here is evei mp tan in the p indi< at ion that an transport will assume as nuu h Wai nMn\ as it m-u n amies in war.

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