Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1970 [PAGE 67]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1968]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

67

(2.0 F T E academic and 1.0 F T E nonacademic staff members for each year of the biennium). 4. Departmental Expense and Equipment Funds ($600J)00). A campus-wide survey of the needs of departments recently disclosed that they generally placed at the top of their lists requests for additional expense and equipment funds to offset deficiencies. The biennial increases that have been possible in departmental budgets for these purposes in recent years have simply been insufficient to keep pace with the increasing costs of maintaining scientific and technical laboratories. The growing complexity and sophistication of equipment has been one of the principal factors in producing these shortages. The graduate and research expenses of scientific departments have been largely met in recent years through federal grants and contracts which have provided the greater part of the equipment needed by their faculty members and graduate students. The level of such federal support will almost certainly be reduced during 1969-71, although the magnitude of reduction can not be forecast at this time. With projected increases in graduate enrollment and in staff, however, it seems certain that the limitation in federal funds will add to the difficulties created by advancing technology and inflation in prices. Furthermore, most of the scientific departments at the Urbana-Champaign campus have been revising their undergraduate laboratory work so as to involve the use of more sophisticated experimental equipment. The National Science Foundation has provided substantial assistance in support of such changes through its Undergraduate Instructional Scientific Equipment Program during the past three years: $55,800 in 1966-67; $48,300 in 1967-68; $19,200 in 1968-69. These figures show clearly a declining trend in N S F support, which probably will be even lower by 1969-70. Meantime, the definite plans of three departments for changes in undergraduate laboratory instruction (Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Microbiology, and Zoology) call for laboratory equipment that would cost some $341,000. The request of $600,000 for the biennium includes two components: (a) a nonrecurring item of $200,000 for 1969-70 only; (b) a recurring addition to the budget of $200,000 in 1969-70, to continue at that level during 1970-71. This amount represents only a small fraction of the total of departmental requests, and it is very substantially lower than the sum submitted by the Chancellor for review by the University Budget Committee. V I . General University P r o g r a m s As already noted, the term "general University programs" is applied to activities that are administered on a University-wide basis. The instructional and publicservice functions of the Division of University Extension are examples. Most of the remainder constitute general administrative and technical services — such as financial and business operations, physical-plant planning and construction, administrative data processing and public-information activities. Requests for increases to support the improvement of a limited number of all-University operations are shown in Table X, classified under two of the four budget categories ("Program Expansion and Improvement" and "Other Increases"). P r o g r a m E x p a n s i o n and I m p r o v e m e n t 1. Enrollment Increases in Extension Courses ($163,501). Funds for this purpose will not be included in the regular budget-formula calculations of funds needed for on-campus enrollment increases. Hence, it is necessary to submit this special request in order to have funds with which to meet the anticipated enrollment growth in extension courses during 1969-71. The estimates of funds shown in Table X are based on the following projections of increased enrollment: 1969-70 1970-71 Total credit hours 1,373 1,505 Total noncredit hours 600 750 Costs are estimated from the instructional costs for comparable courses at the Urbana-Champaign campus, not including indirect costs. 2. Police Training Institute ($108,400). In addition to the enrollment increases just described, the Division of University Extension wishes to expand the work of