PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 22, No. 13, Feb. 6, 2002

Acting Chairman Kenneth Schmidt said there will be "no more business as usual" when he announced plans to review university operations and expenditures during a Jan. 23 UI Board of Trustees meeting conducted by teleconference. Schmidt announced the plans in a statement that referred to a Jan. 19 Chicago Tribune article that questioned the university’s spending in recent years, particularly for board operations and trustees’ travel.

Schmidt said President James Stukel will review university operations not integral to board operations and work with the board to develop and refine policies.

Board operations, particularly those highlighted in the Tribune article, will be evaluated by the chairman and secretary Michele Thompson before being brought to the board for policy development.

Thompson also will gather data from peer institutions, other state agencies and boards for comparison, Schmidt said.

"It is not my belief that a cookie-cutter approach to operations of governing boards is appropriate," said Schmidt, who is a physician. "It is not. Rather we are seeking information that would help us to define what in medicine is defined as ‘best practices’ and information that allows us to make apples-to-apples comparisons. No doubt we will find ways to improve. No doubt in some instances we will be validated."

Alternate sources of funding for board operations besides public money also will be investigated, Schmidt said.

Other trustees concurred with the plans, including Lawrence Eppley, who said the board should serve as an example for the rest of the university in promoting efficiency and economy.

Thomas Lamont, who has served on the board since 1990, said that he was "shocked" by the expenditures for air travel given in the Tribune article because the board had been advised charter and commercial travel would be more economical than the board maintaining its own aircraft.

"If we fell into something that has gotten out of line, we did so with the best intentions of saving money," Lamont said.

Schmidt said all invoices for trustees’ air travel from the past five years are being reviewed to evaluate travel patterns before formal policy is developed. Until then, air travel will be used "when clearly appropriate" but "when requested, alternatives will be sought," Schmidt said.

"It is noted that the most well-intentioned practices can become a bad habit over time, and we must not let this inertia overcome us," Schmidt said.

In other news, the trustees authorized Chicago campus officials to apply for a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund construction of a $200 million biocontainment laboratory on the Chicago campus. UIC researchers and other scientists at the national center would conduct collaborative research on life-threatening viruses and bacteria that might be used in bioterrorist attacks.

If awarded, the NIH grant would cover 75 percent of the project costs, and UIC and any research partners would guarantee the remaining 25 percent.

The trustees also authorized the execution of an intergovernmental agreement with the Illinois Medical District for the proposed project site on Roosevelt Road between Wood and Wolcott streets. The site’s proximity to UIC researchers, major medical centers, FBI headquarters and the Illinois State Police Crime Lab would be optimal in the event of a biodefense emergency, according to a document on the UIC Web site that explains the project.

The facility would be a Biosafety Level 4 Laboratory, the highest level of security, with access restricted by multiple security systems, including perimeter fencing, observation cameras and card-reader systems. Additional safeguards such as air-microfiltration systems, air-lock buffer zones and "space suits" for laboratory personnel would be incorporated to contain and destroy infectious materials.

Five such high-containment infectious disease facilities are now operating in the United States and two other new laboratories are under construction.

In other business:

• Lamont and Robert Vickrey were elected to serve on the executive committee with Schmidt until the trustees’ annual meeting Feb. 12-13 in Chicago.
  
• The trustees approved Enterprise Works @ Illinois as the name of the incubator facility at the research park on the Urbana-Champaign campus.
  
• The board authorized conferral of an honorary doctor of letters degree to Peter Gay, director of the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, at the Urbana campus’s May 18 commencement.
  
• The trustees approved the employment of a construction manager and architects/engineers for the $45 million campus recreation facilities expansion and renovation project at UIC. Phillips Swager Associates Inc., Chicago, with Moody Nolan Inc., will be employed for architectural and engineering services at a fee of $3.2 million. Power Construction Co., Schaumburg, will serve as construction manager at a fee of $1.9 million.
  
• The board authorized a $1.8 million settlement in the case of Brenston v. Vajaranant, et al., in which the plaintiff alleged she incurred complications and subsequent surgeries because a laparotomy pad was left in after abdominal surgery.

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During teleconference, board members vow to review expenditures

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