University of Illinois - Illio Yearbook (Urbana Champaign, IL)

Page 31 text:

DAVID KINLICY, l'h.D., Ll.. IJ. OR more than thirty years President Kinley has been an outstanding figure in the development and progress of the University. In 1894 he was made Professor of Economics and Head of that Departmentg he was for many years Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciencesg he was the iirst Director of the School of Commerce, and for a dozen years or more Dean of the Graduate School. From 1914 until he was elected President of the University he held the office of Vice President. He has had a wide visiong he has dreamed many dreams with regard to the University and its development and has had the influence and force of character to make many of these dreams come true. I 25 J

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Ufzzrferszbf amd 2726 Smfe 4:3169 HE history of the University of Illi- nois is comparatively short. The University is younger than its neighboring sister state institutions, for Illinois was one of the last states of the Middle West to have a state university. But the rise and growth of the University runs parallel with the rise and development of culture and industry in Illinois and the history of its University is an index of the cultural and economic life of the people of the State. The early years of the second half of the nineteenth century were years of com- parative industrial and agriculturalupov- erty in Illinois. For the most part, the peo- ple were still pioneers in those days. In the fifty or sixty years following, however, agriculture, industry and commerce grew rapidly, and today Illinois is thevgreatest industrial state west of the Atlantic sea- board. So, too, in the early years of the University of Illinois, there was a great lack of interest in higher education and even the facilities for elementary educa- tion were few and crude. Out of this edu- cational poverty, the people of Illinois have fashioned a system of public educa- tion which, from the elementary grades to the highest type of graduate and profes- sional training, ranks with the best in the land. Young the University may be in l 24 years, but its achievements in the less than three score years of its life are indicative of the spirit and will of the people of Illinois. During these years the University has been an agent in promoting the economic and cultural activities of the State by pro- viding instruction for men and women in the arts, industries and professions, by solving problems of science, agriculture, the mechanic arts and commerce through research and scientific investigations, and through its extension activities by bring- ing the fruits of these investigations to the many who have been unable to secure a higher education. All of this is but a beginning, a mere indication of what the University can do as the developmental agency of the State. Much of what has been done is quite re- cent, for it has been only during the last thirty years that the University has re- ceived anything like adequate support from the State. Finally, the University has preserved, in the face of material difficulties and dis- couragement, democratic ideals. It has kept faith with the purpose of its founders to provide public higher education for the many. It is helping Democracy through the training of leaders, and Democracy needs many such men and women. O President. l

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. ' , .y ,rn wi 'hz . A1',.A .. l 3 A ' HON. LICN SMALL WILLIAM L, NOBLE Governor of Illinois President of the Board he foam! of Tmfteef MEMBERS EX OFFICIO The GIIIJCIHIII of Illinois HON. LEN SMALL ...... ........ S pringhcld Tllr Supr'rinh'nrlcnl oj Public Instruction HON. FRANCIS G. BLAIR ........... Springfield ELECTED MEMBERS fTvrm 1921-19272 LAURA B. EVANS .............. Taylorville HELEN M. GRIGSBY .............. Pittsfield WILLIAM L. NOBLE ........ 31 N. State Street, Chicago fT1rrm 1923-19291 J. W. ARMSTRONG . ...... 1822 30th Street, Rock Island MARY E. BUSEY .............. Urbana MERLE ,LTREES . ..... 37 W. Van Buren Street, Chicago fTl'll!l 1925-19311 GEORGE A. BARR . ........ .... J oliet ANNA W. ICKIES . ....... Hubbard Woods FRED L. WHAM . . I. . . . . Ccntralia sf nb 'IX n , I . - 3 'Q. . 3 . .. I .1 W s Wham Armstrong Cunningham Morey Evans Burke BBN Grissby Buscy Trees B lair Ickes tm