Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 161]

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

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support which some other "public" hospitals have been able to secure through both increased tax collections and increased local tax rates. Our predictions in the 1977 budget summary that hospital income projections might not be achieved have become fact, and it is possible that later this year we shall not have the cash to meet payrolls. A number of internal steps are being taken to deal with this problem, but it is possible that a supplemental appropriation in behalf of the University Hospital may need to be sought early in the session of the new General Assembly. Accordingly, I ask that the Board of Trustees authorize me to seek such supplemental appropriation for FY 1977 for the University Hospital up to an amount not to exceed $3 million — such effort to be taken after all internal means of attaining a solution have been taken. While not requiring immediate action, it seems appropriate to report to you today that it is clear that the as-yet-unreleased budget advice of the Board of Higher Education will once again contain recommendations that a portion of the funds needed to support higher education in FY 1978 should come from increased levels of tuition — probably in the range of $80 to $100 per year for undergraduate students, around $120 per year for graduate students, to full cost for nonresident students, and with increases of at least similar proportion for health professions curricula. It is clear to me that tuition increases for FY 1978 are inevitable, essential, and equitable. We will bring to you at the January meeting a careful analysis of tuition issues and will at that time have the IBHE recommendations. I would suggest that at either the January or February meeting of this Board we need to reach a firm decision about tuition levels for 1977-78. It seems clear to me that we should today alert our students and their parents to the fact that tuition levels will increase for 1977-78, that those increases will be substantial, and that we shall work to insure that appropriations to the Illinois State Scholarship Commission and to Federal Student Aid Programs are such that tuition increases will not have major negative influences upon access to the University. We shall, incidentally, in our presentation in January provide some data which show that the tuition-access issue is not as simplistic as is sometimes claimed. The financial situation of higher education in Illinois is difficult today, but the problems are not insurmountable. We have reached the point, however, at which the solutions must increasingly come from the income rather than from the expense side. This Board has been rigorous in its review of budget requests, and yet the University this year is operating with a budget base which is $81 million less than would have been the case if our requests since 1973 had been met. We must now find new income, or we must scale down our services — including considering major enrollment decreases and considering the abandonment of any further expansion in the health professions. If we are to meet our responsibilities to the people of Illinois, however, we must first make a major effort to secure more income, and it is that effort which underlies this report and its recommendations. I n response t o t h e report a n d information received, the Trustees took the following actions: ( a ) T h a t , subject to the restoration of funds by the legislature, the F Y 1977 internal budget be a m e n d e d t o increase salaries by 2 percent for s o m e portion of the year a n d to authorize the President to allocate salary increase f u n d s in accord w i t h the action of the General Assembly. T h e student advisory v o t e w a s : A y e , M r . C o n l o n , M r . M a t t h e w s , Mr. V o l g m a n ; no, none. O n m o t i o n of M r . Forsyth, this r e c o m m e n d a t i o n w a s a p p r o v e d by the following v o t e : Aye, M r . Forsyth, M r . H a h n , M r . H o w a r d , M r . L e n z , M r . Livingston, M r . N e a l , M r s . R a d e r , M r s . S h e p h e r d , M r . V e l a s q u e z ; n o , n o n e ; absent, G o v e r n o r Walker.