Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1940 [PAGE 187]

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184

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[January 14

The amountsof increase over the budget of the current biennium will then be reduced t o : Operating Expenses Capital Items Total increase as revised $ 1 636 998 925 000 J 2 561 998

The total reductions since the original budget was presented to the Board on October 17, 1938, are: Operating Expenses Capital Items Total 660 000 1 125 000 $1 785 000 $

Prior to the submission of the budget to the Department of Finance it was reduced by the Board to the extent of $725,000. T h e reductions made since then total $1,060,000 out of the requested increase of $3,621,998, and consist of $400,000 of capital items eliminated by the Board on December 17 and the adjustments totaling $660,000 in the operating budget as suggested above. I submit herewith the report of the Advisory Committee to the Bureau of Institutional Research and request that it be made a part of the minutes.

MEMORANDUM N O . 216 ADVISORY COMMITTEE, BUREAU OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

PROPOSED REVISIONS O F T H E OPERATING BUDGET F O R T H E 1939-1941 B I E N N I U M On December 20, 1938, the President of the University laid before the Advisory Committee to the Bureau of Institutional Research a copy of his report to the Board of Trustees concerning the discussions held in Springfield on December 15 regarding the biennial budget of the University for 1939-1941. T h e President also presented a brief summary of the questions of public and financial policy considered by the Board of Trustees as they were discussed in its meeting on December 17, 1938. The President of the University asked the Advisory Committee to the Bureau to make a frank re-appraisal of the operating needs of the University in the light of the fact that the total of the budgets of the various State agencies greatly exceeds estimated revenues available under existing tax laws. T h e Advisory Committee immediately began its consideration of the situation presented by the President. T h e Director of the Bureau reviewed all of the facts upon which the original estimates had been based. T h e present memorandum is a report of the conclusions reached by the Committee and constitutes, therefore, an amendment to its reports of June 21 and October 15. In presenting certain revisions to its original report, the Advisory Committee wishes to call attention again to the methods which led to its report of June 21 and to certain general considerations of educational and public policy. The proposed operating budget was built up from two sources. On the one hand, all of the Deans, Directors, and other general administrative officers of the University were asked, nearly a year ago, to express their best judgments concerning the needs of their respective divisions for the coming biennium. On the other hand, the Bureau of Institutional Research undertook to build up a budget in terms of a detailed view of each of the single operations of the University. This view is gained from facts regarding each class, each course, and each instructor in the University and from hundreds of other items of operation over a long period of years. Exact knowledge is at hand concerning teaching loads, methods of teaching, research activities, and general operations for every division of the University. In many cases, these facts can be compared with identical facts from other institutions. Taken all together, they yield a view of the whole pattern of work in the University, both as it exists at the present time and as it has existed since 1920. They provide a concrete picture of educational service which can be related to the needs of students and to the needs of the changing social order.