Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1968 [PAGE 275]

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1966]

U N I V E R S I T Y OF I L L I N O I S

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alone. Instead, estimates have been made of the total number of student-credit hours to be generated at each campus during the entire year 1966-67 (including the 1966 summer session and all sessions during the present academic year). Using such estimates as base figures, projections have been made in terms of total student-credit hours for each year of the biennium 1967-69. The increase in total student-credit hour load for each of these years, as compared with the preceding year, is used as the measure of annual enrollment increase for the purpose of calculating the funds needed for increased enrollment. The increases are determined for the four educational levels used in the enrollment reports and estimates. Under the formula for estimating the cost of enrollment increases, the gains in student-credit hours as just described — for the four levels — have been multiplied by corresponding weighted average-cost figures developed from a cooperative study of instructional costs for 1964-65 conducted by the Budget Formula Committee and the staff of the Board of Higher Education. (The Medical Center campus was excluded from this study since its programs are unlike those conducted at any other campus of a state-supported university.) It is questionable whether or not unit cost figures derived from 1964-65 data will yield valid estimates of the funds needed during 1967-68 and 1968-69 for handling the higher enrollments projected. The State Board staff assumes that increases in costs will not be strictly proportional to increases in enrollment, and that whatever cost inflation occurs during the three- or four-year period will be offset by the savings in those areas of cost that do not grow in strict linear relationship to enrollment. While this assumption is probably sound where relatively small percentages of increased enrollment are involved, it is questionable in the case of very large increases such as those projected for the Chicago Circle campus. In particular, the teaching-salary costs in such cases will grow in virtually direct proportion to enrollment and will probably show increases averaging 6 to 7 per cent per year on a national basis. A request for an incremental addition to the enrollment-increase funds to offset such cost increases was seriously considered by the University, but it finally was decided not to press for it for the coming biennium. Meantime, further careful studies of this problem will be made and, if the results seem to justify it, appropriate incremental increases would be requested in future years to offset deficiencies in the support yielded by this type of budget formula.

B5. OPERATING COSTS OF N E W BUILDINGS $3 413 885

The additional funds needed for the operation and maintenance of buildings during 1967-69 are shown in detail in Schedule E beginning on the following page. The first section of the table lists the new buildings to he occupied during 1967-69, grouping them by campuses and showing for each building the following information: floor area in gross square feet, estimated date of occupancy, funds needed for 1967-68 on an annual basis, the additional funds needed in 1968-69, and the biennial total requested. The estimates of funds needed for the operation and maintenance of these buildings during 1967-69 were made in accordance with the guidelines provided by the staff of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. The general procedure was to multiply the number of gross square feet of area in each building by the standard figure of $1.25 to derive an estimate of funds needed on an annual basis. In the case of buildings requiring funds in excess of this annual rate, detailed estimates have been developed in terms of procedures proposed by a task force of the Budget Formula Committee. T h e resulting calculations and other supporting detail will be submitted to the staff of the Board of Higher Education. A second section of the table lists the buildings opened during 1965-67 for which no previous appropriations had been provided, and presents information about these buildings similar to that included for the new buildings in Section I. For such areas, the operating costs calculated on the basis of the 1965-67 budget standard of $1.25 per gross square foot totaled $563,557— for the period of time during which these buildings were used in the 1965-67 biennium. T h e required funds were made available from appropriations for the operation of certain new buildings which were not completed in time for occupancy on the originallyscheduled dates.