Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1964 [PAGE 217]

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172

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[October 17

T h e budget request for the operation and maintenance of the new buildings at the Congress Circle campus is based upon the completion and acceptance of the buildings by the University as follows: Heating Plant — starting up operations during December, 1963 Physical Plant Building — February, 1964 L i b r a r y — F e b r u a r y , 1964 Classroom Clusters — April, 1964 Engineering and Sciences Laboratories — April, 1964 Lecture Center — June, 1964 Staff and Administration — July, 1964 At least thirty days prior to acceptance, University operating personnel will run acceptance tests on the building equipment under the supervision of the architect's staff. This will require that the buildings be supplied with hightemperature hot water, electricity, etc., prior to acceptance, and hence operating personnel for the heating plant must be employed. As soon as the buildings are accepted by the University, moving into the buildings will commence and this will require operating and maintenance personnel, including police service. Heat, light, and power will be the principal item of increase, since starting operations of the heating plant will require electricity, and the entire 12,000-volt University distribution system will have to be tested and put into operation at that time in order to supply the buildings that are approaching completion. The period from December on is the greatest portion of the heating season, requiring maximum use of fuel. T h e costs to be incurred at Congress Circle in 1963-64 are estimated to total $500,000, or approximately one-fourth the annual operating cost of $2,105,000. B. Operating Costs of New Buildings in 1964-65 1. Urbana-Champaign and Medical Center $360 000 T h e remainder of the buildings provided from the capital appropriation will be completed by July, 1964, and will require operating expenditure of $360,000, as detailed in Schedule B (page 176). 2. Congress Circle $590 000 T h e estimated cost of physical-plant operations at the Congress Circle campus, plus the Navy Pier drill hall, which will continue to be used for physical education instruction, is $2,105,000 a year. After deducting the present budget for the operation and maintenance of the Navy Pier campus ($1,015,000) and the funds requested for 1963-64 ($500,000), the additional cost for 1964-65 amounts to $590,000. C. Increases to Maintain Present Level of Services T h e deans and directors requested increases totaling slightly more than $7,000,000 for the biennium to be used to overcome accumulated deficiencies and to meet the rising costs of existing programs. Enrollment increases in excess of budgetary provision, growing complexity and an increasing rate of obsolescence of scientific equipment, rising costs of modern hospital care, growing demand for technical personnel in science and engineering laboratories — all these factors, as well as the gradual upward drift in prices and miscellaneous wages, have combined to produce acute deficiencies and pressing needs throughout the University. 1. Increases in Expense 1 and Equipment Funds $1 500 000 The index in commodity prices, prepared by the National Association of Purchasing Agents, has increased approximately 4 per cent in the past two years. While the prices of some commodities have remained fairly stable, others have increased more than this amount. In the 1961-63 biennial budget, the University requested $2,700,000 to meet accumulated deficiencies in expense and equipment budgets, but only about one-third of this amount was made available. T h e present asking, therefore, represents a deficiency existing two years ago which has not been met. As noted earlier, the University has absorbed an enrollment increase of about 550 more students than was provided for in the 1961-63 budget. In the meantime, prices have continued to rise and the postal increase effective in

1 Examples of expense items are, office supplies, travel, postage, chemicals and glassware for laboratories, contractual services (i.e., telephones, IBM rentals), repairs to equipment, fuel (coal and oil), water, supplies used in plant maintenance, rentals.