Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1954 [PAGE 1370]

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1954]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

1367

make their assignments productive and their zeal and industry for their work are most inspiring. On the face of it, our administrative organization seems excessive. There are about thirty officers reporting independently to the President. According to my observation, administrative officers and the persons connected with such offices work, in many instances, harder than they should. Even so, we do not have sufficient administrative organization to do all that is needed. Some consolidation is desirable, but it is difficult to accomplish without adding to executive personnel. For example, we could well have a University Director of Research and a Director of Academic Personnel. We need more service in a number of our administrative offices, yet all of this costs additional money and increases an already large administrative outlay. For the biennium 1955-1957 I have laid careful plans for as complete a study as is feasible. W e have set up a special budget committee to review all requests, consisting of the Provost, Chairman, the Comptroller, the Director of the Bureau of Institutional Research, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget, and two additional members of the University Council. In addition, the Building P r o g r a m Committee is combing every item of requests for capital outlay. It is hoped by these means to produce a biennial budget which will be thoroughly solid in every detail. In initiating these studies, I made the following statement to administrative officers and heads of departments: "In considering the budget for the next biennium, it should be recognized that the task of securing an increase in present income is becoming more and more difficult for both the University and the state. It can not be assumed that new expenditures, however justified from our point of view, can be matched by additional state appropriations. Hence, it is essential that concurrently with the consideration of such items there be an intensive review by each division of its present projects and programs and an earnest search for ways in which adjustments can be made and more economical operation effected to offset urgent new items, or restore any reductions that were made in the 1953-1954 budget that have resulted in severe handicap to effective operation. "This is not to say that we are committing ourselves to simply stand where we are financially. W e shall be ready as always to wage the battle for increased support, after every item of present expenditure has established its full right to continuation and the case for each addition has been made sufficiently strong to satisfy not only ourselves but the public, the State administration, and the General Assembly, whose money we are expending." This still represents the best statement I can make of what I believe should be the budget policy of the University of Illinois for the next biennium.

Action on the budget was deferred until the open meeting of the Board. Mr. Bissell expressed the opinion that the General Assembly of Illinois should be informed of the potential demands upon the University in the years to come, and suggested that in presenting the biennial budget for 1955-1957 next year an attempt be made to project the operating and capital expenditures and the enrollment for the next twenty years. Mr. Nickell pointed out that in any future planning University officials should bear in mind the interest and responsibilities of the privately supported colleges and universities in Illinois.

DEPARTMENT O F MEDICAL SOCIAL W O R K

Mrs. Watkins requested that a report on the program and activities of this Department be made to the Board at a future meeting. The President of the University stated that he would ask the Provost to make a study and submit a report.

COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES

Mr. Nickell reported a suggestion concerning the devotional features of the commencement exercises made to him by the parents of a stu-