Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1988 [PAGE 19]

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1986]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

9

President's Reports Legislative Relationships

President Ikenberry presented Mr. Kirk Hard, director of the University Office of Governmental Relations, who provided a written report of the recent legislative session and its effect on matters of interest to the University of Illinois. (A copy is filed with the secretary of the board for record.) Mr. Hard spoke briefly, citing the work of the team of individuals who handle this responsibility, including Assistant Director Myrna Mazur, and by Mr. David W. Olien, executive assistant to the president, who has general oversight of it.

Report, Chairman, Executive Committee, Chicago Senate

Professor Robert L. Hall, professor of sociology and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Chicago Senate, presented the following report:

I believe that the comments that I make here will reflect the prevailing view within the U I C Senate. T h e senate is elected by the faculty and students to represent the academic community of U I C I was elected by the full senate to chair the Executive Committee. Some faculty have recently spoken out in public settings expressing views that might be taken as representing prevailing views, but they do not have any status as elected spokespersons. We have now completed the first two years of the consolidated U I C Senate, and I believe that we can claim some real progress both toward unity and toward quality. There is growing collegiality and collaboration across the lines of what were two campuses. We have definitely begun to think like the community of scholars that we are intended to be. In the process of striving for unity and quality, the senate has been an important ally of the chancellor. We have tried to help the chancellor move the University toward top-flight quality, as befits a campus of the University of Illinois. T h e senate has supported and continues to support the chancellor's — and this board's — stated goals for U I C , goals that call for major enhancement of quality and further stimulation of research activity. We have begun to examine the senate's structure and procedures and will doubtless submit some changes to the board during the next year. I foresee no fundamental change, but we are making an effort to focus the senate's attention on the major issues that really affect the nature and quality of our academic programs. Some of you have probably noticed signs of some restlessness and dissatisfaction recently at U I C . Unfortunately a small group of faculty have tried to take advantage of this dissatisfaction for their own ends by speaking publicly outside the University against the chancellor's stated goals for the campus. We regret this, and we do not believe that they speak for the academic community nor for any major part of the faculty. The recent dissatisfaction is real and needs attention, but it is not based on differences about goals, but on differences about the best way to attain our shared goals. We have our differences with the chancellor about budgetary procedures and about the way the campus administrative structure has been working. We feel that there has often been too much centralization of key decisions and that bureaucratic procedures, often ill fitted to- academic problems, have sometimes been instituted. However, we are happy to find the chancellor interested in making adjustments, and we strongly applaud the recent move to appoint an executive vice chancellor who can serve as chief academic officer and chief budget officer for the campus. We are hopeful that this move will begin to remedy some of the problems that have been troubling us.