(a) There is established a department of university extension for the purpose of training citizens of the state in vocational and industrial employments, which shall be a department of the university and be administered, operated and controlled by the trustees of the university.

(b)

(1) The trustees are directed to set apart from the funds of the university derived from the revenues of the state sums equal to the amounts appropriated to the university by the state board for vocational education operating under the act passed by the 64th Congress of the United States, known as the Smith-Hughes Act, approved February 23, 1917 (ch. 114, 39 Stat. 929).

(2) The funds set apart shall be used solely for the promotion of trade and industrial education under the supervision of the state board for vocational education and the provisions of the federal statutes.

(c)

(1) The extension courses shall be offered in the cities of this state having a population of more than twenty thousand (20,000) inhabitants by the 1950 federal census or any subsequent federal census and may also be offered, in the discretion of the trustees, in any industrial center of the state where classes of fifteen (15) or more shall petition the trustees for instruction in vocational and industrial training.

(2) Such subjects may mean any subject given to enlarge the civic and vocational intelligence of workers over sixteen (16) years of age, which shall not include subjects known as strictly academic studies.

(3) Such courses shall be such as the trustees of the university shall establish, by proper rules and regulations; and the trustees may charge a fee to be paid by those taking the courses, which fee shall not be greater than fifty cents (50¢) per week per student to defray the incidental expenses of the course, including textbooks.

(4) There shall be no charge or cost of instructions other than as provided.

(d) The trustees of the university, for the purposes of the extension courses, may, with the consent of the proper city or town officials or school committee, use the school buildings or other public buildings or grounds in any city or town in the state. The board of trustees may also arrange for the use of other buildings, grounds and facilities that may prove to be necessary for the conduct of its work and may expend in rents funds that may be necessary.

(e) The trustees of the university shall, within thirty (30) days of the close of each calendar year, file with the commissioner of education, for the purpose of transmitting to the governor, a full report of the work done by them in the extension courses that are provided for in this section, giving a full and complete report of receipts and disbursements necessary in the conduct of the courses.

(f) No part of the appropriation provided for in this section shall be available for use by the trustees in any other matters than for the expense of conducting the extension courses.