Holdings Academic Development Office of Community Develop... Role of Universities in Reg... Finding Aid Holdings Academic Development Office of Community Develop... Role of Universities in Reg... Finding Aid Title: Role of Universities in Regional Economic Growth File, 1961-1963
ID: 5/2/10
Primary Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Office of Community Development
Extent: 5.3 cubic feet
Arrangement: by type of material and alphabetical or by subject thereunder
Subjects: Community Development, Economic Planning, Industrial Growth, Regional Planning, Universities
Formats/Genres: Papers
Languages: English
Material collected by Prof. James G. Coke as Director of the Office of Community Development and Secretary of the Committee on the Role of Universities in Regional Economic Growth, including the committee's February 1963 final report and progress reports; correspondence with Research Director Dr. John C. Thompson, industries and others on plans, sampling methods, economic factors, university attitudes and recommendations; one cubic foot of questionnaires on university-industry relationships returned by firms in producing pharmaceuticals, computing machines, telecommunications, radio-television equipment and scientific instruments and four cubic feet of brochures, maps and promotional literature received from industrial development commissions, chambers of commerce and institutional promotional offices.
The Office of Community Development (OCD) was established in the Office of the Provost in 1960 to administer a program of community development with funds provided for three years by the Ford Foundation.1 The Programs' purpose was to define the University's role in solving urban problems and to develop a training program for service to Illinois' urban communities.2 Program objectives were to examine ways the University might serve urban areas, to train small cores of urban generalists in fields touching urban life, and to give Illinois urban communities direct access to the university by the assignment of a staff member to the study of their problems.3 When OCD was in the planning phase, links between its staff and the all-volunteer Council on Community Development, formed in 1956, were defined.4 The Council was to continue in its former role of providing communication between university units engaged in research and extension activity on community problems, and to serve an advisory function for OCD.5 OCD was to be responsible for developing a University program of research on community development.6 The Office of Community Development was discontinued in 1965.7
1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 51st Report, September 21, 1960, p.106. Public Information Director's Office, Reference folder, 1965, p. 25.
2. Board of Trustees Transactions, 51st Report, September 21, 1960, p. 106.
3. Ibid.Public Information Director's Office, Reference folder, 1965, p. 25.
4. Office of Community Development Subject File, 1956-62 (5/2/5), Box 2, Metropolitan Regional Studies Project 1960 file, "Next Steps in a Program of Community Research and Service at the University of Illinois", August 3, 1960, p. 4-7.
5. Ibid., p. 6-7.
6. Ibid., p. 4.
7. OCD is listed in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Staff Directory, 1964-65, but not in the 1965-66 and subsequent issues.
URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/0502010.pdf
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