University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Vocational Agricultural Service | University of Illinois Archives

The Board of Trustees submitted an application to the Illinois Board of Vocational Education on February 16, 1918 for approval of plans to maintain teacher-training courses in agriculture in accordance with the Federal Smith-Hughes Act.¹ The University Register initially listed this curriculum under the College of Agriculture in 1918² and under both the College of Agriculture and the newly-organized College of Education in 1919.³ With the advice of the Federal Vocational Board a revision of the curriculum took place in 1941 which rearranged the existing courses, added one new course, and mitigated the unsatisfactory flexibility of the old General Agriculture curriculum.⁴ In 1945 the Trustees approved another revision which included a new degree of Master of Science in Vocational Agriculture⁵ and empowered a Vocational Agricultural Committee appointed by the University Council on Teacher Education to adminster and supervise the program.⁶ In 1951 the Trustees approved new names for the degrees in Vocational Agriculture: Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Master of Science in Agricultural Education.⁷ In 1960 the Trustees approved minors in general science and biology for students of Vocational Agriculture.⁸ In order to meet a change in the Illinois State Board of Vocational Education requirements, another revision of the curriculum took place in 1962.⁹

1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 29th Report, February 16, 1918, pp. 647-48.

2. Annual Register 1918-1919, pp. 153, 164.

3. Annual Register 1919-1920, pp. 66, 168; Board of Trustees Transactions, 29th Report, June 1, 1918, p. 758.

4. Board of Trustees Transactions, 41st Report, April 17, 1941, pp. 240-41.

5. Ibid., 43rd Report, July 3, 1945, pp. 539-40.

6. Ibid., June 30, 1945, pp. 512-13.

7. Ibid., 46th Report, October 23, 1951, p. 1255.

8. Ibid., 50th Report, May 17, 1960, p. 1279.

9. Ibid., 51st Report, January 11, 1962, pp. 1262-63.