SEPTEMBER 12, 1955 CHANCELLOR'S MEETING
A little over a month later on September 12, Chancellor Allen convened a meeting to discuss the IBM proposal. Participants in this meeting are known.
Dean Jacoby reported that after much thought he had appointed a School committee to study the IBM proposal and report to the faculty. He raised the question of financing the physical facilities and also the annual cost of operations which might run as much at $250,000 annually. He also thought that the Center might be housed in the present BAE (Business Administration and Economics) building at a minimum expenditure.
Other views were part of the discussion. One was that the IBM and SWAC computers should be located close together.
A question was raised about the effectiveness of an inter-university committee administering the facility.
The status and permanent support for the Numerical Analysis Research Group was once again brought up and the Chancellor noted that the policy question it raised was in the hands of the Committee on Educational Policy.
Dean Boelter (Engineering) raised once again the issue of the University's direct financial support for computing which up to now had been lacking.
The Chancellor noted that Berkeley had already begun to move on a computing center in the near future and Dean Boelter added that it had sought financial support from the National Science Foundation. He expressed the opinion that the "University should have a coordinated, State-wide program of computer facilities."
The group did "agree that today a computer facility is a necessary tool for research in the sciences, in business, and in engineering" and that "electronic data processing equipment would become in the future... as essential a research tool as the slide rule or the desk calculator."
They also agreed that space and housing should not be a prime consideration, and that the IBM proposal should be explored fully and "settled one way or another as quickly as possible." To this end , they were invited to view IBM 704 computers in operation at the Rand Corporation and the Douglas Aircraft Corporation in Santa Monica.