Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1960 [PAGE 145]

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142

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[October 23

should be raised to $12,000 within the next two or three biennia. Approximately three-quarters of the academic staff are below the rank of professor. T h e gap between faculty salaries and commercial and industrial positions requiring comparable training is so great that many of the most promising students go into other lines of work. T h e situation is particularly acute in engineering, but shortages also exist in architecture, law, commerce, medicine, dentistry, chemistry, and many other fields. Business Week magazine has reported that the average salary of ten-year college graduates is $9,200 for industry and $10,400 for banking. This is from 20 to 30 per cent more than the average University of Illinois faculty member of similar seniority receives. A neighboring engineering school recently made a study of forty-seven teachers who left its faculty to enter industry. Two-thirds of the former staff members received industrial salaries which exceeded their academic salaries by 50 per cent, and one-sixth of them received more than twice as much. T h e University of Illinois has the largest and one of the finest Colleges of Medicine in the country. Yet fewer than 10 per cent of the full-time staff of the College receive salaries above the national average for practicing physicians. T h e most serious problem facing higher education in the next decade is recruiting enough personnel to staff classes adequately for twice the present enrollment. T h e University can ill afford to lose staff to other professions, and concerted efforts must be made to attract more people to the teaching profession. Many men and women are temperamentally attracted to the academic life, but to hold even these a generous increase in the salary level is essential. Adjustments in nonacademic salaries must be made to keep pace with anticipated increases in industry and in private and federal employment. In most nonacademic groups the salaries are now reasonably in line with comparable positions elsewhere, but further adjustments are needed in some areas. Altogether, $4,000,000 is needed for salary adjustments for all members of the staff in the first year of the biennium and an additional $4,000,000 in the second year, a total of $12,000,000 for the biennium. As indicated above, some increases in minimum salaries will be proposed. Otherwise, no percentage or across-the-board increases are contemplated, and each group will be considered on the basis of its relative position in comparison with comparable employment outside the University. With minor exceptions, every employee will receive some increase. T h e amount requested is nearly half the new money asked for, and is approximately 10 per cent of the total proposed budget from tax funds. It is not the final answer to the salary problem, but it will permit a continuation of orderly improvement. I V . University's contribution to the health insurance program $600 000 T h e University has provided, on a voluntary basis, hospital, medical, and surgical insurance for members of the staff and their dependents. A staff committee has made an exhaustive study and recommends a plan which would cover the first $250 of all hospital expenses, and 80 per cent thereafter. It would also cover 80 per cent of medical expenditures in excess of $100. Each person would be insured for a $15,000 maximum benefit. T h e committee recommends that the University pay the full cost of the insurance for staff members and half of the premium for dependents. This proposal is in line with a growing practice in industry and provides an excellent benefit at a relatively low cost to the state. T h e premiums for employees paid from other than state appropriations would be charged against funds from which the employees are paid. V. To put new buildings into operation $1 289 800 F u n d s will be needed for operation of buildings to be completed during the next biennium. These include the new Physics Building, Library Addition, Fine A r t s Building, Medical Research Laboratory, Classroom Addition in Chicago, and several minor structures. F u n d s for the Labor and Industrial Relations Building, Veterinary Isolation Unit, and the Assembly Hall in the amount of $348,000 are requested for one year only. An itemization of the amounts appears in Schedule C. V I . For additional enrollment $1 480 000 From 1,000 to 1,500 additional students are expected to enroll on the three