Office of Community Development Subject File, 1956-1962

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.