Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1980 [PAGE 489]

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478

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[December 12

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

President's Reports

T h e p r e s i d e n t r e v i e w e d r e c e n t a c t i o n s of t h e Illinois B o a r d of H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n , in p a r t i c u l a r , c o n s i d e r a t i o n of t h e U n i v e r s i t y ' s b u d g e t r e q u e s t s for fiscal y e a r ( F Y ) 1 9 8 1 ; a n d h e d i s t r i b u t e d a s t a t e m e n t p r e s e n t e d t o t h e B o a r d of H i g h e r E d u c a t i o n o n D e c e m b e r 4 . T h e s t a t e m e n t follows: I appreciate this opportunity to make my first presentation to the Illinois Board of Higher Education in regard to the budget request of the University of Illinois. T h e Board staff has received the full documentation in support of our request and therefore I will not dwell on the details. We have had several productive meetings with members of the Board staff. I am sure these will continue. I wish to comment on only three major items, each extremely important to the University of Illinois, and all of which relate to the fundamental issue of academic quality. First, to the need for improved compensation for members of the faculty and staff. At its heart, the University is a people enterprise. I t is the quality of the people engaged in that enterprise that shapes the quality of the University. The University of Illinois is confronted with a paradox. Most assessments place the academic quality of the University of Illinois among the top in the Big T e n — the normative institutions similar in mission and program to which we frequently compare ourselves. At the same time, our compensation schedule is below average. This matter is of great concern, not only to members of our Board of Trustees, but to the faculty and administrative leadership of the University. If this condition is allowed to continue over the long term, unavoidably it will result in a subtle b u t no less real deterioration in the quality of the University. In current dollars, an average faculty compensation of $28,048 would be required to place Illinois in the upper ranks, or third, in the Big Ten. T h e current average faculty compensation figure for the University of Illinois is $26,690. I n short, we are faced with a gap of $1,358, approximately 5 percent of our salary base. We have developed and present for your consideration a plan to eliminate this gap over a three-year period. T h e plan requires that improvement in faculty compensation be at least equal, each year, to average increase in compensation in Big Ten universities. Beyond this, however, we must be able to exceed that figure annually by approximately 1.7 percent. This will require an extra investment of approximately $3.4 million per year. As such a plan is successfully implemented over a three-year period, it will resolve the current paradox between quality and compensation and place the University on a sound footing for the future. We would propose to use the extra margin of 1.7 percent annually to improve the fringe benefit program at the University. That is the weakest component in the overall compensation package. In addition, it will yield the greatest after-tax benefits to members of the faculty and staff. We need, for example, improved dependent health and dental insurance; we need to provide long-term disability coverage; we must provide for improved survivors' benefits. T o take this first step in this three-year plan, we must make no less than a 9.7

1 University Senates Conference: Rose Ann Grundmaji, associate professor of mathematics in medicinal chemistry at the Medical Center, and Thomas Beckman, associate professor of health professions education in the Center for Educational Development, Medical Center campus; Medical Center Senate: Dr. Ruy V. Lourenco, Edmund F. Foley Professor of Medicine: Urbana Senate: Alexander L. Ringer, professor of music; and Chicago Circle Senate: David O'Connell, professor of French.