Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 516]

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1978]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

503

For senior universities, the recommended new dollars ($56 million) are allocated as follows among (1) systems and (2) purposes: (1) Board of Governors Board of Regents Southern Illinois University University of Illinois Total (2) Salary increases Price increases Operation and maintenance — new buildings Program support Other Adjustments to FY 1978 base Total $ 9.5 10.2 10.0 26.3 $56.0 $36.4 8.3 2.6 6.0 2.5 0.2 $56.0 million million million million million million million million million million million million

These recommendations compare to requests for FY 1979 submitted by the various units included within the category higher education as follows: (1) Total request $154.8 million Total recommendation 93.8 million Recommendation as percent of request 60.6% (2) Request — senior universities $ 82.6 million Recommendation — senior universities 56.0 million Recommendation as percent of request 67.8% (3) Request — University of Illinois $ 34.5 million Recommendation — University of Illinois 26.3 million Recommendation as percent of request 76.2% For the University of Illinois, the differences between requests and recommendations total $8 million and are as follows: Salaries Price increases Operation and maintenance — new buildings New programs Other Total ($1.68 million) ( .75 million) ( .12 million) ( 4.87 million) ( .57 million)

($7.99 million)

These figures and comments represent the cold facts of the IBHE budget recommendations for FY 1979. Several items are worthy of special mention. The IBHE recommendations contain a careful and thorough discussion of the funding problems of the State Universities Retirement System ( S U R S ) , and the recommended increase of $16.7 million for SURS funding will enable Illinois to achieve retirement funding above the so-called payout level for the first time for many years. The recommendation provides the funds necessary to achieve the level recommended by the Pension Laws Commission — net benefit payout plus 2 percent of total estimated payroll. This recommendation deserves and will receive our strong support. We are presently engaging in conversation with the staff of IBHE concerning the nearly $5 million reduction in our request for funds to support program initiatives. While it seems clear that we will need to adjust to the reduction, we do not yet have full agreement with the IBHE staff about the distribution of the reduction among various programs. I expect that we will reach agreement, and I do agree with the IBHE staff that program initiatives must follow salaries, retirement funding, and meeting price increases in any reasonable list of priorities.