Gerald W. Smith Memoir - Brookens Library

Gerald W. Smith 200kt me s~mpnarize this and then come back to a little more detail. This isthe Master Plan that they published and as they had said, and as I yeadearlier, this was to go to the General Assembly in 1965. In the winter andspring of 1965 the Governor--Otto Kerner--organized an advisory cowgnit teein his office to take up the recmendations of the Master Plan, to m&edeterminations which recommendations would be accepted and which ones wouldk modified and which ones would be rejected, and on the basis of their decisionsto have a bill drafted, sponsored out of the Governor's office, tobecome the Jdor College Act. House Bill 1710 was, in fact, the outgrowthof the wo~k of the group that met with Governor Kerner and so in the springof 1965 House Bill 1710 did in fact becom a reality. It moved through theHouse and, then, as I said, was slightly revised in the Senate, wax passedby the General Assembly in the closing days of the session, and was sLpdby Governor Kemer on July 15, 1965. All statutory citations with regardto judor colleges in Illinois from that date on now refer to the IllinoisJunior College Act of 1965 as amended.Q. That's the story.A. Yes.Q. It's mazing. I hadn't realized that Kemer had appointed an advborycormdttee.A. That's-why I left part of this out of here because some of the controversythat had to [be] dealt with arose in that codttee.Q. Oh, I see. I was going to say, what powers did that cormittee have?A. The corcnnittee was made up of members of the House and Senate. It wasbipartisan. Then he added to the people designated from the House and theSenate a nwnber of citizens at large, so we had the legislators balancedby citizens. They had no powers beyond making recommendations to theGovernor which he saw fit to approve or not approve, because it was he whodecided what the initial language of that bill was. Of course, the peoplewho had the authority to do something about it were the General Assembly.Q. Yes.A. The Governor used them as advisory people. I know that he was swayedmany times by their different ideas or attitudes with regard to it, but Iknow of one or two places where his ideas prevailed on matters that weresomthes a surprise to the cormnittee. As, for example, and I will t kabout it a little later, the plan for mding capital development. 0 I? toKerner came up with a different plan than people had been think- about.Q. This is the end of their comersation for the day. We will ~swne twodays later, using the outline Gemy worked out this afternoon.This discussion is now cont5nuing on the morning of September 1, Wednesdaymdng, and it reflects the thinking that Gem has been doing since thelast time we were together. I think you said this morning, Gerry, thatyou had done some reflecting and there were sm thoughts that;you wouldlike to put in the record at this time. The floor is-yours, sir.