Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Library Sixth Stack [PAGE 11]

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And while there is no single answer to this challenge, it is clear that it cannot be met in the absence of salaries which are competitive with those offered by peer institutions in the public and private sectors. Competition for first rate faculties is increasingly stiff and we have to respond. The other most pressing problem faced by public universities and colleges in Illinois today is the need to renovate and modernize aging and outmoded academic facilities. No one wants to overbuild a campus, as elementary and secondary education was overbuilt decades ago. The result has been the abandonment of many schools throughout the State of Illinois today, something which does not endear taxpayers to educational finance. But, if we expect to attract and retain top quality faculty and staff members, they have to have adequate facilities in which to work. If we expect students to have access to high quality programs, we have to recognize that these are at least in part dependent on modem equipment housed in functional facilities. The bottom line is that in tougher economic times a few years ago, repairs and renovations and modernization were deferred because they were thought not to be the highest priority. But now the time has come for the State of Illinois to address the problem of aging facilities in its universities and colleges by developing a program of modernization and renovation. I will, starting with next year's budget, urge the Illinois Board of Higher Education to work with our universities and colleges to develop and recommend to me and to the General Assembly a multi-year, multi-million dollar program that will halt facility deterioration and begin to rehabilitate research and teaching laboratories in our universities and colleges. All of these things, not just for themselves, but to recognize the importance of the linkage between education and economic development, between learning and job opportunity, between the present and the future. But education, whether elementary and secondary, or higher education in one form or another, cannot be a strong partner in economic development unless education is itself strong. To that end, and for our future, we must all of us now dedicate ourselves.

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