Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1976 [PAGE 501]

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490

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[January 21

For the first time since I have been involved with BHE budget recommendations, starting in 1971, the so-called "new money gained through productivity or reallocation" has been eliminated. The BHE has finally recognized that appropriations which have consistently fallen short of inflation rates have required enormous efforts in productivity and reallocation on the part of public universities and that these efforts have enabled us only to lose ground slowly rather than to create new money for new efforts. I will not burden you again today with a Tecitation of the ways in which inadequate appropriations have begun to erode our quality — both in terms of our ability to pay competitive salaries and of our ability to provide support services to our faculty and staff. We are not this year faced with BHE budget documents which pretend that we can support millions of dollars worth of salary increases or of other cost factors by consuming our own bodies through a process called productivity. We are highly productive, we shall remain so, and we are pleased that this fact has been recognized. Second, while I and my administrative colleagues and you are being criticized in some quarters for our failure to match other institutions in developing massive budget request figures, I am not yet prepared to state that the General Assembly and the Governor will find our budgetary restraint either poor tactics or poor advocacy. The Board of Higher Education budget documents support an increase in our appropriations of $21,233,300, as opposed to our request for $29,382,200. However, the BHE documents calculate the support of the continuation of our expansion of programs in health professions in a manner different from our method. Had we used the BHE method, our request for new funds would have totalled $26,780,300. Thus the BHE recommendation differs from our request in an amount of $5,547,000. This difference is made up of the following components. U. of I. BHE Item Request Support Difference Salary $14 035 500 $13 060 600 ($ 974 900) Price Increases 4 427 100 3 626 200 ( 800 900) New Programs 6 516 200 3 304 300 ( 3 211 900) Operation and Maintenance (new buildings) 1 695 500 836 300 ( 859 200) Deficiencies 106 000 405 900 299 900 Total $26 780 300 $21 233 300 ($5 547 000) The major difference between the BHE budget advice and our request is in the area of new programs. We find this difference regrettable because we can find no rationale which leads us to believe that our very few program proposals deserved such rejection. If we — and you — are to be faulted in our advocacy on behalf of the University of Illinois, it is in this area of new programs mat we are most vulnerable, and it is in this area that we are currently reviewing our relationships with the BHE