PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 21, No. 19, May 2, 2002

Chancellor updates senate on budget

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
(217) 244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Deans and department heads may have to plan for larger reductions in their base budgets than previously thought, Chancellor Nancy Cantor told the Urbana-Champaign Senate at its final meeting for the academic year, April 29.

The state may slash another $15 million from the university’s budget next year, Cantor said. As a contingency plan, Cantor and Provost Richard Herman have asked administrators to plan for baseline budget reductions between 6 and 6.5 percent in academic units and 7 and 7.5 percent in administrative units.

However, university officials are aggressively working with state legislators to minimize the budget reductions, and the actual impact will not be known until the state general assembly closes its session and the UI Board of Trustees meet in May, Cantor said.

"It has been quite the year," Cantor commented about her first academic year on campus. "We have a lot to brag about and a lot to be worried about."

Senator-elect Al Kagan, professor of library administration, questioned the integrity of the recent election for chair of the Senate Executive Committee saying that senators were not given ample time to nominate additional candidates besides Senator Robert Fossum, professor of mathematics. Kagan and other senators had voiced similar concerns at the senate’s April 22 organizational meeting.

Calling the uncontested election an "outrageous and egregious situation," Kagan called for the University Statutes and Senate Procedures Committee to review the election procedures and report back to the senate.

Members of the Committee on Committees (COC) approached three or four people but all declined to be nominated in the election, said Michael Murphy, COC chair, in response to Kagan’s remarks.

In other business, the senate approved an amended version of the Interim Policy on Appropriate Use of Computers and Network Systems. Amendments by Senators Stephen Kaufman, professor of cell and structural biology, and H. George Friedman, professor emeritus of engineering, clarified the prohibition against using UIUCnet for commercial or profit-making purposes and other purposes that would interfere with the university’s mission. The revisions also deleted language prohibiting use of UIUCnet for "unauthorized mass mailings" as Kaufman indicated that the term "mass mailings" should be defined before being incorporated into the policy.

The senate approved the Committee on Educational Policy’s proposed 2004-2005 academic year calendar but sent the proposed calendars for the succeeding two academic years back to the committee for further review. The committee will consider a proposed policy to dismiss classes for a full week every Thanksgiving.

Senator Nick Burbules, chair and professor of educational policy studies, reported that the Conference on Conduct Governance had met with Cantor, associate chancellor Larry Mann and other campus officials to develop a revised policy on the distribution of handouts on campus. The proposed policy, which is advisory to the chancellor, addressed concerns raised by senators while maintaining the broadest scope possible, Burbules said.

In advisory votes to the chancellor, the senate approved:

• A revised rule streamlining the hearing process for capricious grading complaints and eliminating the need for multiple hearings.
  
• A proposal revising the class attendance policy to simplify procedures for dropping students from classes for poor attendance.