Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1982 [PAGE 500]

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1982]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

489

ommendations and the several implications, but we should be mindful of a few key points: 1. The recommended reduction of $18 million in state support for higher education presents a serious problem for our universities, given the $30 million in unavoidable cost increases we face next year. 2. No general salary increases are possible next year at this or any other public university in Illinois if our support remains at the current recommended level. 3. Earlier in this decade, the priority accorded higher education as a share of the overall state budget declined. It is important to the future of this University and important to the future of the state of Illinois that this erosion be halted. Through efforts of the governor and the leadership of the General Assembly, we had begun to make progress in restoring support for higher education. We must not lose those modest gains. 4. The governor has pledged that given approval of additional revenue measures, additional support for higher education would be forthcoming. It is essential that these revenues be secured. As you know, I have stated publicly the urgent need for stronger support for Illinois higher education. We will be working with alumni of each of our colleges and with other friends of the University of Illinois as we address these issues over the coming months. In the meantime, we are keenly aware that even if our efforts are successful, we will be faced with a strained budget in FY83. All of the belt tightening previously announced during the last twelve months must continue. Additional measures will have to be taken. Our aim will be to provide continuity and stability during this turbulent period. Given the lateness of the hour and the uncertainty of the size of our fiscal problem, we cannot and will not make additional wholesale program cuts. While further reduction will need to be made, we will aim to shelter, where possible, academic programs and make disproportionate cuts in administrative costs, including, as necessary, a 6 percent cutback in the state-funded base budgets of the central administrative units of the University. Comparable steps have been taken or will be taken at the college and campus levels. Also, we have asked deans and other administrative officers to exercise restraint in filling vacant positions during this period of uncertainty. At each step along the way we have consulted as widely as possible with faculty, staff, and others, and we will continue to do so.

Founder's Day

Lest we become too deeply entrapped in our immediate, short-term fiscal woes, it is important to remember that on March 2 the University of Illinois celebrated its 115th birthday. Over the years — from 1867 to 1982 — the people of Illinois have brought forth a virtual miracle on the Illinois plains. A reading of the University's history tells us that there have been good times and bad, but the commitment to greatness has not wavered. By investing in the future, even when times were hard, the people of Illinois built a library system which is the best of any public university in the nation; a College of Agriculture that has brought about a revolution in food and fibre production; programs in engineering that are among the most productive and among the best. Whether in engineering or agriculture, business or the health professions, law or architecture — Illinois has made a commitment from the time of its founding to be a great university, not merely a trade school, and from this came a commitment to excellence in the basic disciplines in arts and sciences. I cite this historical perspective not because it is new to any of us, but to emphasize that on the 115th anniversary of our founding, we should remember we have weathered difficult times in the past. We can do so again, and our commitment to quality remains unchanged.