Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1924 [PAGE 69]

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66

board of trustees

[October 20,

This report was received for record. At this point, at 12 m., a recess was taken. AFTERNOON SESSION, OCTOBER 20, 1922 W h e n the Board convened at 2 p. m. on October 20, 1922, the same persons were present as during the morning session. The Board continued i s discussion of matters presented by the t President of the University. PROPOSED UNIVERSITY BUDGET FOR BIENNIUM 1923-25 (22) The following statement. W h e n the University's Legislative Budget was made up two years ago, I advised the Board that it should be regarded as a prospectus of a financial plan, which, if granted by the Legislature and the Governor, could probably be adhered to as to the total amount of money required for a period of eight or ten years; that is to say, I expressed the opinion that it would not be necessary to ask that our total appropriation be increased for several biennial periods. O n your behalf I explained to the public, to the Legislature, and to the Governor that our proposed budget was divided into two parts, an operating budget and a capital budget. I stated that the total amount asked for was the smallest which, in m y judgment, was necessary to put the University back on its feet, to restore it to its old state of efficiency, and to put it in condition to meet the needs of the present time. I pointed out further that if w e received the amount asked for, namely 582,500,000 for the erection of buildings, in the current biennium, w e would then, for the biennium 1923-25, transfer a certain amount from the building or capital budget, to the operating budget, to meet the increased expenses of operation, due to the prospective larger enrollment. T h e idea was to continue this gradual transfer from the capital budget to the operating budget through successive biennial periods without increasing the total asked for, so that in perhaps a decade w e would find ourselves with fifteen or twenty thousand students and with buildings and equipment adequate to take care of them. T h e State might then safely take up anew the question of adequate support for the University at the end of the decade, which would be about 1930 or 1931. W e were not successful in securing the whole amount asked for in either our operating or our building budgets. In consequence, w e have been very seriously handicapped, especially by the loss of the library appropriation; and if there had not been an increase in general income through increased fees we would have had considerable difficulty with our operating budget. At two previous meetings in the present calendar year, once informally, and once formally, as shown by the minutes of July 12, last, I submitted to the Board m y views as to adherence to this general policy, and requested tentative approval of a proposed building budget to be presented to the next General Assembly. I now submit m y final recommendations on the budget to be sent in to the State Department of Finance as required by law, on November 1, and to be presented to the Legislature in accordance with the provisions of the law, by the Board of Trustees at the coming session. I think we should adhere to the policy that the total sum asked for last time should not be exceeded in the proposed budget for the next biennium. Our student body has increased by several hundred in the biennium, so that a larger teaching staff and more equipment and materials are required, and there is some additional expense for maintenance and physical operation. Therefore, it is necessary to increase somewhat the amount asked for various items in the operating budget. Accordingly, I recommend that the following budget be adopted as the one to be