Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1964 [PAGE 218]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1962]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

173

January, 1963, will require approximately $150,000 in additional funds for the biennium. The University's equipment appropriation of $3,200,000 is adequate to replace the existing equipment inventory only once in about every twenty to twenty-five years, while the most expensive type of equipment for scientific laboratories becomes obsolete in less than half of that time. T h e requested increase will help to meet the needs resulting from unanticipated increases in enrollment and also to improve the replacement-schedule for equipment. T h e present level of appropriations to the Physical Plant Department will permit painting of interior walls only once in eighteen years, with two wall washings in the interim. Two areas of special need are the Research and Educational Hospitals and the Division of Services for Crippled Children. Even after enforcing rigid economies, the Research and Educational Hospitals are unable to operate within the funds presently budgeted for them. They have requested an increase of $644,000 in expense and equipment budgets, of which $437,000 represent urgent and long-standing deficiencies. A major portion of the Division of Services for Crippled Children budget goes for hospital care of patients who are approved for treatment. Hospital costs have been increasing by approximately 10 per cent each year. It is estimated that $268,000 will be needed for increased costs of hospital care alone. Failure to receive this increase will mean that fewer children can be treated for physical handicaps. Requests from deans and directors totaled $3,475,930 for increases to correct deficiencies in expense and equipment budgets. The Budget Committee, after careful consideration, concluded that $1,500,000 was the minimum amount needed for this purpose. 2. Increases for Auxiliary Staff to Offset Accumulated Deficiencies $1 073 000 The deans and directors reported an increasing deficiency in auxiliary personnel throughout the University, and several stressed this need as being more important than any other facing them. A biennial total of $3,691,262 was requested to provide administrative, technical, and clerical personnel in support of instruction, research, and public-service activities. Inadequate staff provision related to increased enrollment has been most acutely felt in the Office of Admissions and Records, the Library, the Business Office, and the various offices for student services. Many departments are also understaffed in clerical personnel due to increasing work loads without commensurate staff additions. The hospitals and clinics need more nursing and technical personnel to try to keep pace with the growing manpower requirements of modern diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in medicine. T h e Research and Educational Hospitals are hard-pressed to measure up to acceptable standards of present-day medical education and research — s o severe is the shortage of hospital personnel in all major categories. The Director has estimated that a total of 54 full-timeequivalent additional staff members are needed to overcome these deficiencies. The teaching and research laboratories in many science and engineering departments require more technical assistance in order to be most effectively used. T h e extensive and complex instrumentation required by modern science and technology can not be effectively utilized without adequate technical staff. The funds available in recent years have been seriously insufficient to permit these departments to expand their staffs in these areas on the scale demanded by technological development and increased enrollment. A careful study of departmental requests was made, and a list of the individual positions that seemed to be most urgently needed was compiled. A summary of the funds required to support these positions is presented in Schedule C (page 177), grouped by colleges and other divisions; The total is $536,500 on an annual basis or $1,073,000 for the biennium.

VII. INCREASES FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS ($707 000)

In recent years, the University's legislative appropriations have provided little support for new educational programs or for substantial improvements of existing programs. It has been necessary repeatedly to delete such items from biennial budget requests, in order to bring the totals within the limit of available