Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 16]

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1976]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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procedures to insure that procedural variations among the campuses do not reflect differing standards of excellence nor differing interpretations of University policies." President's Report on S e l e c t e d Topics of Current Interest P r e s i d e n t C o r b a l l y p r e s e n t e d a r e p o r t o n selected t o p i c s of c u r r e n t i n t e r est, copies of w h i c h w e r e d i s t r i b u t e d a t t h e m e e t i n g , a n d a copy w a s filed w i t h t h e S e c r e t a r y of t h e B o a r d .

Report on 1977 Budget

The President presented the following statement with regard to the 1977 budget.

On July 13 the University learned officially that Governor Walker had exercised his item-reduction and item-veto authority to reduce the amounts appropriated to the University of Illinois for FY 1977. This action, while not unexpected, was disappointing and discouraging to all of us who had worked for many months with the General Assembly, the Board of Higher Education, the Bureau of the Budget, and the Governor's Office in support of the attainment of the necessary resources required to permit us to maintain the quality of the University and to provide minimal salary increases for our staff and our faculty. T h e General Assembly, after more hours of hearings concerning higher education than has been true in any of the past five years, provided appropriations for the University which did recognize both our needs and the fiscal problems of Illinois. I know that many members of the General Assembly share our disappointment in the rejection of the results of careful and thorough legislative deliberation. T h e disappointment and discouragement revealed by many members of our faculty and staff are understandable and have merit. Their feelings, however, are no more intense than are the feelings held by those of us who have worked in the legislative process. I can assure them that we intend to continue our efforts unabated to secure some minimal equity for them, for our students, and for the people of Illinois who expect the University of Illinois to remain a comprehensive institution of higher learning with standards of excellence of the very highest order. We must ask the General Assembly to reaffirm its support of high quality higher education by restoring to the University of Illinois the salary increase funds deleted by Governor Walker. It is now too late to continue in FY 1977 our commitments to the expansion of education for health professionals and to the expansion of educational opportunity in the Chicago area for those unable to attend Chicago Circle during daytime hours. But it is not too late to rectify a decision which provides our people with a token salary increase of 2.5 percent in a period when 5 percent inflation is considered to be a low rate. We cannot meet our obligation to the University and to Illinois without making every possible effort to meet our obligation to the faculty and staff who provide and support the teaching, research, and public service activities which are the University. Our first priority will be to persuade the General Assembly to restore these funds to our appropriations for FY 1977. Beyond that, it is my view that we must prepare for the possibility of tuition increases and supplemental appropriations during 1977 if the restoration efforts should fail. We cannot simply sit by and watch one of the finest faculty and staff groups in this country reach salary levels well below what they deserve and begin to depart for states and institutions which recognize their merit to a greater extent than is now the situation in Illinois. We are already at work in the effort to restore the funds required to achieve salary increases averaging 4.5 percent in FY 1977. I will keep you informed about these efforts and ask that you join in them in every appropriate way between now and the legislative session in November.