Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1976 [PAGE 217]

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206

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[March 19

of all University personnel represent our first priority need for 1975-76. We have calculated that increases averaging 12 per cent represent the dimension of that need. Through careful management of the funds recommended by Governor Walker including some reallocations of funds internally, we believe that we can accomplish salary increases averaging 9.5 per cent for 1975-76 within that recommendation. Included within that accomplishment will be the achievement of the step pay plan for so-called open range employees which you have twice reviewed and endorsed. I want to emphasize one point so that I am not misunderstood. We will be able within the recommended funds to achieve the step pay plan with average increases for open range employees of 9.5 per cent; we will not achieve the step pay plan in addition to such average increases. I n my view and in the view of my administrative colleagues, the ability to achieve salary increases of this magnitude in today's uncertain economic climate represents a major step forward toward regaining the economic status of our personnel and toward regaining our traditional competitive position vis-a-vis institutions and other employers of comparable stature. I t would, in our view, be the worst sort of "dog in the manger" approach to greet the recommendations of the Governor with anything other than support. I know from conversations with his representatives and with representatives of the Board of Higher Education, that the proposed increases in salary for our personnel were made with care and with support for the high priority of our salary needs. While some would wish that you and I continue to argue that "this amount is not enough," I cannot recommend that course of action. Accordingly, unless directed otherwise, it is my intention to support the recommendation of the Governor and to ask my colleagues to turn their attention to the important questions of salary policy for 1975-76 within the amounts available in the Governor's budget. T h e other matter I would mention is the perennial question of support for the State Universities Retirement System. Several of you, through service on the State Universities Retirement System Board, are aware of the controversy surrounding the adequacy and, indeed, the legality of the levels of support provided the State Universities Retirement System throughout its history. T h e only things of which I am certain in this situation are that it is a problem which cannot be solved unilaterally by any single university, that it is a problem whose magnitude is subject to great disagreement among experts, that it is a matter currently under litigation, and that it is a problem of real concern to all of us who are members of the State Universities Retirement System. We shall continue to press for some resolution of this matter, but we intend to deal with this problem as a matter which must be separate from the operating budget for any given year. T h e solution must be long-range, it must have strong support from a number of elements of State government, and it can only be developed through special attention separate from normal budgetary considerations. We shall continue to call for and to participate in efforts to provide that needed special attention.

OLD AND NEW BUSINESS

The Chair recognized Mrs. Rader, who took occasion to note that this meeting was the twentieth annual meeting attended by Mr. Park Livingston, who, in the course of his service to the University as a Trustee,