Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1976 [PAGE 456]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1975]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

445

Board authorize the execution of the proposed agreement with the Levis Faculty Center Sponsors, Inc. I concur. President Corbally asked Chancellor Peltason to provide the Trustees with additional information concerning this recommendation. T h e Chancellor and members of his staff reviewed the financial difficulties the Center h a d undergone in its three years of operation under the Levis Faculty Center Sponsors, Inc. T h e present indebtedness totals approximately $110,000; total liabilities, $180,000. He apologized both to the Trustees and the Illini Union Board for the lack of advance notice of the recommendation presented, indicating that the emergency situation and prudent management appeared to require quick action in the development of a new agreement with Levis Faculty Center Sponsors, Inc., as presented. It was made clear that the Center is in such straits that it cannot meet its forthcoming payroll and, in the course of time, would face the problem of bankruptcy. Chancellor Peltason also presented for their comments Mr. Howard Diamond, an undergraduate student at the Urbana campus and Chairman of the Illini Union Board, and Dr. Harry Hilton, Professor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering and Chairman of the Levis Faculty Center Sponsors, Inc. Mr. Diamond submitted a written statement from the Illini Union Board, which asserted that the presentation of the recommendation was in violation of the "Statement on Operation and Governance of the Illini Union" (approved by the Board of Trustees in July of 1974) which mandates consultation with the Illini Union Board on "major policy decisions or changes in existing policy" with regard to the Illini Union. T h e complaint and a request for further information as to the financial implications with regard to the Illini Union Board were made on the assumption that the recommendation before the Board implied that the Illini Union would assume management responsibilities for the Levis Faculty Center. Mr. Diamond requested the Board either to defer the recommendation until consultation with the Illini Union Board had been carried out or to reject the proposal as presented. Mr. Hilton spoke briefly on the financial situation of the Levis Faculty Center Sponsors, Inc., noting that the cash flow problem had existed from the beginning, in part as a result of the lack of sufficient initial capital for operations. He noted the advantages to the Illini Union as well as to the Faculty Center of an agreement such as that presented to the Board. T h e Trustees explored in some detail the consequences of delay in taking action and the possibility of an interim arrangement that might be made until further consultation and analysis could be completed. T h e Chancellor and members of his staff expressed the need for flexibility, indicating that no guarantee could be made that a specific solution, even under the management of the Illini Union Board, would be entirely satisfactory, and stating that there was a need to investigate further-—