Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 565]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

552

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[March 15

MINUTES APPROVED T h e secretary presented for approval the press proofs of the minutes of the Board of Trustees meetings of November 18 and December 14, 1977, copies of which had previously been sent to t h e board. O n motion of M r . Livingston, these minutes were approved as printed on pages 459 to 495 inclusive. REPORT CONCERNING THE MERIT BOARD Mr. Lenz, newly elected chairman of the Merit Board, reviewed briefly the work of the board in recent years under its previous chairman, M r . Ivan Elliott. M r . Lenz expressed his interest in meeting with individuals from the various university systems and advisory groups, the personnel directors, and others to plan for the work of the Merit Board in the next few years, the basic objective being, how best t h e board might help nonacademic employees. H e introduced M r . Walter Ingerski, director of the State Universities Civil Service System, who summarized t h e functions of the board a n d some of its new activities, including the implementation of a newsletter. He, in turn, introduced other members of the staff, M r . Ralph W. Ivens, assistant director and secretary of the Merit Board, and Mr. Emil G. Peterson, assistant director. BUSINESS PRESENTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY President's Reports Fiscal Year (FY) 1979 Budget Report This statement to you started out to be a recommendation related to tuition levels for the coming academic year. It is now much broader than that and, while I apologize for the length of these remarks, I cannot overemphasize their importance nor the need to view them as a whole rather than as a collection of separate items. At this point as we face our final decisions related to the 1978-79 operating budget and to our strategies for securing appropriations in support of our needs, it is important to review the steps which have taken place to date: 1. In September 1977, you approved the submission to the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), to the governor, and to the General Assembly of a budget request for 1978-79 in the amount of $300,395,700 (inclusive of Agricultural Premium Funds and exclusive of State Universities Retirement System (SURS) contribution). This request included funds to support salary increases averaging 10 percent for all members of the faculty and staff. This request did not include any recommendations concerning sources of funds — particularly concerning tuition increases. 2. In January 1978, the Illinois Board of Higher Education approved budget recommendations for the University for 1978-79 in a total amount of $292,268,900 — a decrease of $8.1 million from our request. I provided the details of that decrease to you in January — most of the dollars were deleted from new programs. However, our request for salary increases averaging 10 percent was reduced to a recommended increase of 8 percent, plus 2 percent for lowerpaid civil service employees. The IBHE recommendations also included recommended tuition increases of $48 per year — increases which would have provided $2.4 million in support of our budget. 3. Earlier this month, the Illinois Board of Higher Education responded to a re-