Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1988 [PAGE 219]

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1987]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

209

Retreat with Members of the University Senates Conference On Wednesday, March 11, the trustees and general officers met for the afternoon with the University Senates Conference. The group met in two general sessions: to review the overall relationships between the conference, the president, and the Board of Trustees; and in a closing session, to review the results of various group discussions. The discussion groups concentrated upon the following subjects: undergraduate education, research, and graduate education; obtaining and allocating resources; and the status of the professoriate. No consensus or recommendations were developed or sought. Rather, as the chairman and organizer of the retreat (and chairman of the University Senates Conference) Kenneth E. Andersen made clear: the intent was to provide an opportunity for the trustees, general officers, and conference members to meet and discuss broad institutional questions in the absence of pressing issues and to become better acquainted. RECESS INTO COMMITTEE MEETINGS1 There being no further business, the executive session was adjourned at 9:20 a.m. to convene meetings of the Committee on Buildings and Grounds and the board meeting as a Committee of the Whole. At the meeting of the board as a Committee of the Whole, an administrative analysis of possible increases in tuition and fees for 1987-88 was presented by Vice President Weir and by Vice President Bazzani. Alternate tuition recommendations were identified, providing various combinations of assessing differential undergraduate tuition. None of the alternatives departs from an overall 4 percent increase for the coming year. A new fee was introduced for discussion, a request from the U r b a n a campus for a $20 per semester fee ($60 a year for students in University housing) to provide computer maintenance, new laboratory sites, and a variety of expanded access and facilities in computer services for undergraduate students. Final administrative recommendations will be presented at the April meeting. Following presentations, student speakers were afforded time for comment. M r . Filip, student trustee from Urbana, objected to the differential tuition policy a n d reported student interest in modification or elimination of it; M r . Starkeson, student trustee from Chicago, called attention to the extent to which waivers of fees for graduate students impose a burden of payment upon undergraduates. H e suggested study of means by which this could be offset by payment into the system on behalf of graduate students. Finally, Mr. Kevin Lamm, former student trustee from the Chicago campus, presently president of the Student Government Association at Chicago, presented a statement arguing for a stabilization of fees; for greater representation of students on committees and agencies within the University involved in setting tuition and fees; and emphasizing that

1 A meeting of the Student Welfare and Activities Committee was convened on Thursday, March 12, and representatives of the intramural and intercollegiate athletic programs at the Chicago campus were present to discuss their work. Some twenty-five students and administrative officers participated and were guests of the Board of Trustees at luncheon.