PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 20, No. 6, Sept. 21, 2000

Trustees approve FY2001 operating budget of more than $2.5 billion

The UI Board of Trustees has approved an operating budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 of slightly more than $2.5 billion, 3.9 percent more than last year.

The board approved the spending plan at a meeting in the Illini Union’s Pine Lounge Sept. 13 and 14. Trustees also agreed on what they’ll ask for in next year’s budget.

The current spending plan contains direct taxpayer support of $756 million, up about 5.9 percent. The rest of the budget is composed of tuition, grants and contracts, the medical practice plan, federal support and auxiliary activities, such as bookstores, student housing and parking.

"This university acknowledges both our gratitude and our responsibility to the people of Illinois who directly contribute about a third of this year’s budget," said UI President James J. Stukel. "Once again the Legislature concurred with the governor’s program initiatives, among them advancing the university in computer science and biotechnology – so the university can further the state’s interest in these key high-tech areas – and restoring faculty positions lost in the last decade as well as upgrading and improving student access to advanced technology."

The state-funded portion of the operating budget helps underwrite a basic salary increase program averaging 3 percent for all employee groups. For competitive reasons, the campuses will use reallocated funds to supplement the basic salary for faculty. The university expects to reallocate about $13 million for highest priority academic and support programs and to cover unavoidable cost increases such as sick-leave payments and utilities. More than half of the redirected money, however, is for enhanced salaries.

The operating budget is effective until June 30, 2001, and is the day-to-day spending plan for the three campuses, which have a combined enrollment of about 65,000 students.

The request for next year’s operating budget is about 8 percent more -- $79.7 million -- than this year’s base budget.

It asks for a 4 percent increase in state funds for general salary increases, which would cost about $30 million. Medicare and Workers’ Compensation add another $940,000 to payroll costs. General price increases, utility and library hikes are set at $7.4 million. With the cost of opening new buildings added in ($2.9 million), the overall increase sought for "continuing components" is nearly $42 million, or 4.2 percent above the current year.

The next largest piece of the FY2002 request is $14.4 million for six universitywide academic program initiatives. Included is a remodeling request fund of $8 million for repair and renovations of major buildings at Chicago and Urbana-Champaign; $750,000 for UI Online, which provides development grants to cover the initial costs of converting an existing degree or certificate program to an online format; and $750,000 to support the initiation of a preschool-to-16 partnership, a collaboration among education institutions from preschool through university levels.

The UI also seeks $14 million for four central areas in the university’s academic programs. In the area called "strengthening the academic base," for example, the Urbana-Champaign campus is asking for $1 million to sustain momentum in rebuilding the faculty, and $1.8 million in recurring funds to meet the start-up requirements of new faculty members.

The UI seeks $3.75 million for instructional technology, to increase network capacity at Urbana-Champaign, improve technology infrastructure at Chicago and upgrade instructional technology at Springfield, among other things.

The third area of academic program initiatives seeks $1.6 million for outreach and service programs at Chicago and Urbana, and for the Fire Service Institute at Urbana.

Finally, the FY02 operating budget request includes $9.6 million for two statewide initiatives in higher education: $7.6 million in continued support of a five-year Illinois Board of Higher Education Plan to increase the ability of public universities to compete with peers in the faculty and staff salary market; and $2 million to continue building a steady and sustainable source of facilities renovation support.

This year’s operating base budget is just over $1 billion. If the entire university request for FY 2002 were granted, the total would be nearly $1.1 billion, or 7.95 percent greater than this year.

Also Sept. 14, the trustees approved a list of requested capital projects totaling $243 million for the repair and renovation of existing buildings, for new buildings and for utility upgrades. Eleven projects are on the list; typically the Legislature supports bonding for the first few projects and the remainder move up for consideration in subsequent years.

The top project is repair and renovation at all three campuses ($10 million total), followed by a campus chiller at Urbana for $45 million and $32 million in matching funds for the construction of a new computer science building at Urbana.

The operating and capital requests now go to the Illinois Board of Higher Education for review, and later go to the governor and the Illinois General Assembly for action in the spring legislative.