Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1970 [PAGE 122]

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122

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[October 16

funded accrued liability. T h i s total amounts to 12.72 per cent of the salaries of participants in the Retirement System, exclusive of those for whom employer contributions are paid from trust and federal funds. T h e amounts needed to meet this requirement are $10,204,015 in 1969-70 plus an additional $1,720,705 for 197071, making a total increase of $22,128,735 for the biennium. T h e Board of the State Universities Retirement System has recommended several changes which will improve benefits under the System, principally: (a) annual increases in pensions of 1.50 per cent per year after retirement; (b) an increase in maximum survivor's benefits from $250 a month to $350 a month; (c) an increase in the retirement formula on a sliding scale — with a maximum of 80 per cent of salary at age sixty-six rather than the present 70 per cent. All of these changes are subject to legislative approval. Both the Board of the Retirement System and the staff of the Illinois Board of Higher Education have asked the universities to include funds for these improvements in their budget requests, since the Pension Laws Commission will not ordinarily approve any improvements in benefits unless funds are appropriated to cover the full costs. T h e sum of $2,700,175 is requested for this purpose in 1969-70 and an additional $284,075 for 1970-71, making a biennial total of $5,684,425 for improvements.

SALARY ADJUSTMENTS $26 902 906

The amount requested for salary-rate increases for the biennium 1969-71 has been calculated from formulae developed by the staff of the Board of Higher Education in collaboration with the Budget Formula Committee. T h e totals generated by the formulae are as follows: Annual Increases Biennial 1969-70 1970-71 Total Academic salary increases $5 123 724 $5 491 659 $15 739 107 Nonacademic salary increases 3 201 313 3 456 033 9 858 659 Student wage-rate increases 218 500 219 030 656 030 Deficiency in 1967-69 prevailing rate funds 324 555 649 110 Total $8 868 092 $9 166 722 $26 902 906 Academic Salary Increases. Academic employees include all staff members with teaching, research, extension, and administrative responsibilities whose positions are not classified under the University Civil Service System of Illinois. In determining the amount to be requested for academic salary increases, the University for several biennia has based its estimates of need mainly on comparisons with salaries of the following eight universities: University of California, Cornell University, Indiana University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Stanford University, and the University of Wisconsin. 1 It is believed that the University of Illinois may appropriately be compared with this group of institutions in terms of the diversity and quality of its programs and faculty — a judgment supported by national surveys of universities. One objective of the University's salary-increase policy has been to achieve standings at least at the midpoint of the group of these nine institutions (including Illinois), for each of the four regular academic ranks (professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor). In Schedule B on the following page, comparative salary figures are shown for the group of nine institutions for 1966-67 and 1967-68. In addition to cash salaries, "total compensation" averages for 1967-68 are shown — based upon a combination of cash salaries plus fringe benefits. (Such figures are not available for all of these institutions for 1966-67.) In terms of average cash salaries, the University of Illinois advanced in relative standing for each of the four academic ranks by at least one position, as follows: Professor, from seventh in the group of nine in 1966-67 to sixth in 1967-68; associate professor, from seventh t o sixth position; assistant professor, from eighth to fifth position; instructor, from seventh to fifth position. While these gains are encouraging, their significance is considerably mitigated

1 The order in which the institutions are listed in Schedule B is not the same as this alphabetical order.