Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1994 [PAGE 186]

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174

BOARD OF TRUSTEES BOARD MEETING RECONVENED

[February 9

When the board reconvened in regular session, the members of the board, officers of the board, and officers of the University as recorded at the beginning of these minutes were present, with the exception of Trustee Calder.

BUSINESS PRESENTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY

President Ikenberry recognized and introduced observers from the campus senates and from the University Senates Conference.1 The president then asked Chancellor Aiken to introduce the new associate chancellor for public Affairs at Urbana, Dr. William M. Murphy. Next, he reported to the board that the month of March would be most crucial since the governor's budget will be introduced in the General Assembly this month. Most important in this budget is the recommendation for increases in faculty salaries. If this recommendation is approved, it would provide for budget stability for the third year in a row. The president indicated that the budget recommended by the Illinois Board of Higher Education and advanced by the governor is within reach. Though modest, it is attainable. Next, he told the board of developments in legislative proposals to change the governance of higher education in the State. He noted that a bill introduced to transfer Sangamon State University to the University of Illinois and give individual boards to all other institutions in the Board of Regents system and to all in the Board of Governors system had been introduced in both chambers of the General Assembly. He said that the bill appears to be moving very rapidly. In view of the speed with which these proposed changes seem to be moving through the legislature, the president urged the board to consider these issues very seriously and think of: (1) what will be the future status of faculty throughout the University; (2) how will programs at the Chicago and Urbana campuses of the University be reviewed for possible offerings at a Springfield campus; (3) what are the possibilities for restructuring the campus at Springfield; (4) how will the University deal with collective bargaining for faculty in this situation (he stressed the importance of avoiding the creation of two classes of faculty); and (5) how will the University make certain that any change that would add a campus to the University will be more than simply a change made in name only. The president then referred to the costs, mostly one time, of adding Sangamon State University to the University of Illinois, citing the cost of changing many systems to conform to those in place at the University of Illinois. In concluding his remarks about proposed governance changes

1 University Senates Conference: Tawfik Y. Sabet, professor of oral biology, Chicago campus; Urbana-Champaign Senate Council: Thomas J. Riley, associate professor of anthropology; Chicago Senate: Edward A. Lichter, professor of medicine, College or Medicine at Chicago.