Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/439

 SOME IMPORTANT DEPARTMENTS 385 through all the accounts, spending a month or six weeks in the most searching examination, not only of the accounts, but also of the securities. Every possible safeguard that could be devised was employed. No one person could draw checks, not even the Treasurer. Every check must be signed by the Business Manager and countersigned by the Secretary of the Board. No one person had access to the securities of the University. Such access could be had only by the Treasurer, or his representative, together with the Business Manager, or the Chairman of the Committee on Finance and Investment, or the President of the Board of Trustees. Some months before the close of each year a budget for the following year was prepared with great care, showing the probable receipts for the ensuing year and the appropriations needed by the various departments. This, with such changes as the Trustees decreed, was adopted as the basis of expenditure. In making up the esti- mate of probable fees from students the authorities gradually came to the adoption of one most important rule. This was to take the figures for the last completed year as the estimate of receipts from students. For example, if the fees from students for 1913-14 amounted to seven hundred and nineteen thousand dollars this was the amount estimated for 1915-16. No account was taken of the increase or probable increase, which the natural growth of the institution during two years would effect. The budget estimates of probable receipts were, therefore, extremely conservative. To make certain that the appropriations were not over-expended there was a Standing Committee on Expenditures, consisting of the Presi- dent of the University, the President and Secretary of the Board, the Business Manager, and the Auditor. This Committee met once a week in the President's Office to consider more important ques- tions of expenditure. The Auditor and Secretary had daily meet- ings to consider routine or minor matters. The budget estimates, both as to income and appropriations were grouped under ten sections, as follows: I, General Administration; II, Faculties of Arts, Literature and Science; III, Divinity School; IV, Law School; V, School of Education; VI, Libraries, Laboratories, and Museums; VII, University Extension; VIII, Printing and Pub- lishing; IX, Buildings and Grounds; X, General Funds.