Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1976 [PAGE 500]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1976]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

489

of the hearings involved opposition to the proposed tuition increases, to limitations on tuition waivers, and, in particular, to the current budget recommendations of the Board of Higher Education which link tuition increases to salary increases.

Progress Report, Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), Urbana

President Corbally noted that an extensive report covering the EOP at Urbana since its inception had been prepared and mailed to the Trustees and, at his request, Chancellor Peltason reviewed the highlights of the document. (A copy was filed with the Secretary.)

President's Report on Selected Topics of Current Interest

President Corbally presented a report on selected topics of current interest, copies of which were distributed at the meeting, and a copy was filed with the Secretary of the Board.

Statement on the Board of Higher Education Budget Recommendations, Fiscal Year (FY) 1977

Operating Budgets The advice which the Board of Higher Education will provide to the General Assembly and to the Governor concerning appropriations in support of higher education in Illinois for Fiscal Year (FY) 1977 was approved by the BHE on January 6, 1976. Following this action of the BHE there was the usual confusion in the press which regularly fails to differentiate among the advising function of the BHE in budgetary matters, the appropriations functions of the General Assembly and of the Governor, and the governing and allocating functions of the governing boards of the systems of public higher education. Thus we read headlines such as "BHE Raises Tuition" or "Student Tuition to Support Salary Increases" as if BHE advice represents some sort of final decision. Reports of BHE advice also fail to recognize the authority of this Board of Trustees to allocate all University funds among the campuses and other functional units of the University of Illinois. The University is recognized by the General Assembly and by the executive branch of government as a single university, and BHE data on a campus-by-campus basis are for purposes of calculation rather than of allocation. These concepts should be kept firmly in mind by all who read reports of so-called BHE "budget actions." While most of the public attention to BHE budgetary advice for FY 1977 has focused upon tuition recommendations (a focus which has been strengthened by the simultaneous conduct by the BHE of public hearings on the proposed Master Plan IV (MP IV) in which tuition proposals have been the major topic of discussion), the tuition question is not the major item upon which either we or the General Assembly and the Governor should concentrate. Ramer, the statement of and endorsement of the needs of public higher education as presented in the BHE documents are the crucial elements.