UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

LOCATION

The University of Illinois is situated in Champaign County, in the eastern central part of the state between the cities of Champaign and Urbana, within the corporate limits of the latter. It is one hundred and twenty-eight miles south of Chicago, at the junction of the Illinois Central, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, and the Wabash railroads. The country around is a rich and prosperous agricultural region. The cities of Urbana and Champaign have a combined population of about 15,000.

HISTORY

In 1862 the national government donated to each state in the Union public land scrip in quantity equal to 30,000 acres for each senator and representative in congress; "for the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college, whose leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts * * * * in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life."

On account of this grant the state pays the University, semi-annually, interest at the rate of five per cent. on about $535,000, and the University owns about 5,000 acres of unimproved land, worth, with deferred payments on land contracts, approximately, $75,000.

To secure the location of the University several counties entered into competition by proposing to donate to its use

specified sums of money, or their equivalent. Champaign County offered a large brick building in the suburbs of Urbana, erected for a seminary and nearly completed, about 1,000 acres of land, and $100,000 in county bonds. To this the Illinois Central Railroad added $50,000 in freight. The General Assembly accepted this offer May 8, 1867.

The state has from time to time appropriated various. sums for permanent improvements, as well as for maintenance. The present value of the entire property and assets is estimated at $1,900,000.

The institution was incorporated February 28, 1867, under the name of the Illinois Industrial University, and placed under the control of a Board of Trustees, constituted of the Governor, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the President of the State Board of Agriculture, as ex-officio members, and twenty-eight citizens appointed by the Governor. The chief executive officer, usually called President, was styled Regent, and was made ex officio a member of the Board, and presiding officer both of the Board of Trustees and of the Faculty.

In 1873 the Board of Trustees was reorganized, the number of appointed members being reduced to nine and of ex-officio members to two-the Governor and the President of the State Board of Agriculture. In 1887 a law was passed making membership elective, at a general state election, restoring the Superintendent of Public Instruction as an ex-officio member. There are, therefore, now three ex-officio members and nine by public suffrage. Since 1873 the President of the Board has been chosen by the members from among their own number for a term of one year.

The University was opened to students March 2, 1868, when there were present, beside the Regent, three professors and about fifty students. During the first term another instructor was added, and the number of students increased to 77-all young men.

During the first term instruction was given in algebra. geometry, physics, history, rhetoric, and Latin. Work on

the farm and gardens or about the buildings was at first compulsory for all students, but in March of the next year compulsory labor was discontinued, save when it was made to serve as a part of class instruction. A chemical laboratory was fitted up during the autumn of 1868. Botanical laboratory work began the following year. In January, 1870, a mechanical shop was fitted up with tools and machinery, and here was begun the first shop instruction given in any American university. During the summer of 1871 the Wood Shops and Testing Laboratory, burned June 9, 1900, was erected and equipped for students' shop work in both wood and iron.

By vote, March 9, 1870, the Trustees admitted women as students. During the year 1870-71 twenty-four availed themselves of the privilege. Since that time they have constituted from one-sixth to one-fifth of the total number of students.

By the original state law, instead of the usual diplomas and degrees, certificates showing the studies pursued and the attainments in each were given. The certificates proved unsatisfactory to the holders, and in 1877 the legislature gave the University authority to confer degrees.

In 1885 the legislature changed the name of the institution to the "University of Illinois."

During the same session of the legislature a bill was passed transferring the State Laboratory of Natural History from the Illinois State Normal University to the University of Illinois. This Laboratory was created by law for the purpose of making a natural history survey of the state, the results of which should be published in a series of bulletins and reports, and for the allied purpose of furnishing specimens illustrative of the flora and fauna of the state to the public schools and to the state museum. For these purposes direct appropriations are made by the legislature from session to session. A large amount of material has been collected, and extended publications have been made in both the forms above mentioned.

By an act approved March 2, 1887, the national government appropriated $15,000 per annum to each state for the purpose of establishing and maintaining, in connection. with the colleges founded upon the congressional act of 1862, agricultural experiment stations, "to aid in acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting the principles and applications of agricultural science." Under this provision the Agricultural Experiment Station for Illinois was placed under the direction of the Trustees of the University, and a part of the University farm, with buildings, was assigned for its use. At least one bulletin of results is published every three months, and the copies are gratuitously distributed over the state. Editions of 18,000 copies are now issued.

For the more complete endowment of the state institutions founded upon the act of 1862, the congress of the United States, by a supplementary law passed in 1890, made further appropriations. Under this enactment each such college or university received the first year $15,000, the second $16,000, and thereafter was to receive $1,000 per annum additional to the amount of the preceding year, until the amount reached $25,000, which sum was to be paid yearly thereafter.

The Chicago College of Pharmacy, founded in 1859, became the School of Pharmacy of the University of Illinois May 1, 1896. Its rooms are at 465 State Street, Chicago.

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the University held Dec. 8, 1896, upon recommendation of President Draper, the Trustees voted to take steps looking to the organization of a law school. Appropriations were made for salaries, for the purchase of books, and for incidental expenses. Pursuant to this action of the Board of Trustees, the School of Law was organized during the following spring and summer, and was opened Sept. 13, 1897. The course as originally planned covered two years, conforming

to the existing requirements for admission to the bar in Illinois. The supreme court of the state, however, announced, in November following, rules covering examinations for admission to the bar which made three years of study necessary, and the course of study in the Law School was immediately rearranged on that basis. Feb. 9, 1900, the name was changed, by vote of the Board of Trustees, to College of Law.

Negotiations looking to the affiliation of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Chicago, with the University, which had been going on for several years, were concluded pursuant to action taken by the Board of Trustees upon definite propositions submitted by the College of Physicians and Surgeons to the Board at its meeting of March 9, 1897. According to the agreement made, the College of Physicians and Surgeons became on April 21, 1897, the College of Medicine of the University of Illinois. The College is located at 813 W. Harrison Street, Chicago.

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees held April 22, 1897, the matter of the appointment of a librarian was considered by the Board and referred to a committee. This action of the Board was taken with a view of bringing to the University the School of Library Economy, which had been established in 1893 at the Armour Institute of Technology, in Chicago, and of securing the Director of that school for librarian of the University library. These plans were carried out and the State Library School was opened at the University in September, 1897.

BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS

The land occupied by the University and its several departments embraces about 210 acres.

The Chemical Laboratory is a building 75 by 120 feet, and two stories high, with basement. It contains general laboratories for students, instructors' laboratories, lecture rooms, store rooms, scale rooms, and various apartments for special purposes.