The College of Medicine, originally an independent institution, opened on September 26, 1882, as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago (P&S) with 100 students and a faculty of 30. Five years later, the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois approved a contract of affiliation whereby the university would lease P&S as its Department of Medicine. The arrangement continued until 1912, when there was a nine-month hiatus in the affiliation owing to a lack of legislative support. It was only after the faculty and alumni of P&S bought up all shares of the school's stock and presented them to the Board of Trustees as a gift that the school officially became the College of Medicine of the University of Illinois in March 1913.