President B. Joseph White plans to convene a resource summit in late November or early December to review the UI’s cost structures and revenue to decide how to best allocate its resources.
White’s announcement came during the UI Board of Trustees’ meeting Sept. 6 in Urbana at which the trustees approved preliminary operating budgets for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, and for FY09. Trustee Robert Sperling voiced concerns that the 2.5 percent and 3 percent salary increases allocated in the FY08 and FY09 budgets respectively would not be competitive and would not safeguard against losing faculty members to other universities that pay more. The proposed FY09 budget also included an additional 1.5 percent for retention/recruiting/salary adjustments.
Sperling asked if additional funds could be found for salary increases. “If we’re top tier, then we should pay top tier,” Sperling said, and while he commended White for his willingness to look for ways to reduce administrative costs, he said that would not solve the problem.
Other trustees had differing ideas about where to look for additional resources, with David Dorris suggesting that the UI seek additional support from the state of Illinois, and Kenneth Schmidt recommending tuition increases. Trustee Frances Carroll said, “If we can find the dollars for the Global Campus, then we can find the dollars for the faculty.”
Terry Bodenhorn, the chair of the University Senates Conference, told the trustees later in the meeting that four years of low raises have adversely affected faculty morale.
Salary competitiveness will be a priority during the resource summit, White said. About 100 people from the three campuses – including the chancellors, provosts, representatives from the faculty senates and department heads – will be involved.
“I see a lot of instances in the university in which people really don’t have the resources they need to get the job done at the quality level they think is important,” White said after the meeting. “Our revenue situation overall is pretty strong now and yet we continue to have resource shortages at the local level in various parts of the university, and I think we have to get to the bottom of that in terms of what are we going to do about that.” White added that staffing reductions were not under consideration.
The preliminary FY09 budget presented at the meeting asked for $118.3 million in new state appropriations, an 8.9 percent increase over the current year’s budget. Administrators will present a final budget for FY08 at the board’s Nov. 14 meeting in Springfield.
Other business
Chancellor Richard Herman reported that the Urbana campus is about 55 percent of the way to its $1.5 billion goal for the Brilliant Futures capital campaign.
Linda Katehi and Michael Tanner, provosts of the Urbana and Chicago campuses respectively and co-chairs of the UI Energy Task Force, presented a proposal for development of a university energy policy. Each campus will develop its own policy and timeline for implementation, and the final proposals will be presented to the board at its November meeting.
The trustees approved preliminary designs for a new building for the Illinois Natural History Survey that would be built on Urbana’s south campus in the Research Park. The preliminary design incorporates a pedestrian path that already traverses the site, and would include a series of step-down gardens leading into the building’s courtyard as well as other eco-friendly technologies that would qualify it for silver certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Program. Trustee Robert Vickrey requested a report at the board’s November meeting about developing a survey campus that would bring all the state surveys together in one location at Urbana.
The Web site for the Global Campus (http://global.uillinois.edu/) went live on Sept. 5, White told the trustees. In October, prospective students will be able to submit online applications for the nursing and education programs, which start in January. Additional programs will begin later in 2008.
The trustees passed a resolution honoring the UI’s Chicago campus for receiving the Prix d’Excellence 2007 Award from the Paris-based International Real Estate Federation. The Chicago campus, which was the first university and the only U.S. institution to win the award during 2007, was commended for the quality of its east campus development, for strengthening Chicago’s economy, making quality education affordable, “devoting 37 percent of the campus to green space … bringing new life to a struggling neighborhood, attracting additional development and becoming a catalyst for social change.”