Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1938 [PAGE 365]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1937]

U N I V E R S I T Y OF

ILLINOIS

363

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BUILDING PROGRAM

T h e Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois has given careful consideration to the Governor's message submitted with his veto of items for buildings aggregating $650,000 in the act making appropriations for the University for 1937-1939 passed by the Sixtieth General Assembly, and particularly to the suggestion that these items can be taken from the Revolving Fund. In reply the Board respectfully submits the following: In order to explain fully and adequately the significance of such an adjustment in the biennial budget, and its effect upon the University's educational and scientific program, it is necessary, first of all, to present a statement of the character, purposes, and functions of the Revolving Fund. T h e Revolving Fund of the University consists of the receipts from student fees, sales of farm products, residence hall rentals, services to Federal departments and agencies affiliated with the University, and miscellaneous sources. T h e law requires that all money received by the University be deposited in the State treasury to the credit of the Revolving Fund. In order to disburse any part of this fund, an appropriation by the General Assembly is necessary. Disbursements from the fund for the operation of residence halls and similar auxiliary activities, and for services to other agencies for which the University simply receives reimbursement, aggregate $600,000 per year, leaving for the biennium only $2,500,000 representing income actually available for the educational budget of the University. T h e budget of the University is based on the use of all income of the Revolving Fund, as well as Federal funds and interest on endowment, plus the specific appropriations from State tax revenues for salaries, office expense, travel, operation, repairs, and equipment. N o one of the specific appropriations for these purposes from general tax funds is sufficient to meet the total necessary expenditures for these purposes. This fact is indicated in pages 4 and 9 of "Data Concerning the Budget for the Biennium 1937-1939" dated March 10. 1937, copies of which were presented to the Governor and members of the joint budget subcommittee of the General Assembly, also on pages 15 to 19 of the Comptroller's Report of June 30, 1936. Copies of these documents are submitted as Exhibits A and B, 1 respectively. In further explanation of the relation of the Revolving Fund to the University's budget, the attached schedule (Exhibit C ) 1 is submitted, showing the allocation of all funds appropriated to the University for 1937-1939. It shows how the Revolving Fund is budgeted. T h e University's budget, as passed by the General Assembly, represented reductions in the appropriations from State tax revenues of $625,000 in operating items and $625,000 in building items from the original budget submitted to the Department of Finance on November I, 1936. These reductions were made by the Board of Trustees on May 13, 1937, before the budget was presented to the General Assembly. T h e budget as set up and analyzed in the memorandum of March 10, 1937 (Exhibit A ) , differed from the original budget of November 1, 1936, in two respects. It was found necessary to make an adjustment of $250,000 in the Revolving Fund to cover the increase in the volume of non-income-producing transactions operating through that fund; and in January the Board added an item of $250,000 for the first unit of a Journalism Building, which item however was later eliminated by the Board before the budget was presented to the General Assembly. This reduction was in addition to the reductions totaling $1,250,000 made by the Board on May 13. T h e entire amount of the Revolving Fund has already been allocated to the various divisions of the University as a basis for their detailed budgets, and is necessary for their efficient operation. T h e cash balance of the Revolving Fund in the books of the Auditor of Public Accounts on June 30, 1937, was $328,883.29. This might suggest that a

'These exhibits were filed with the Secretary of the Board for record.