Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 582]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1978]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

569

The parity bonds will be issued to finance the projects identified on the following listing, and the bonds will be sold on a competitive bid basis. The issue date of the bonds is subject to the final issue date of the advance re-funding issue, but is presently scheduled for August or September 1978. I n the discussion of this recommendation and the refinancing program as a whole, the desirability of eliminating "tuition retention" was raised. T h e subject had also been analyzed in a document sent the trustees in advance by Vice President Brady. Tuition retention — the actual use of tuition in support of revenue bond facilities — is a practice based upon authority given the University under the Illinois Finance Act. T h e amount of tuition retained varies from year to year and is authorized by the Board of Trustees annually when the internal operating budget is approved. T h e current amount retained annually is $1,202,000. This portion of the new refinancing program, with a bonding capability of $31,000,000 within maximum debt service levels and a project list of only $24,000,000, will make possible a partial reduction in the amount of tuition retained; the remainder could be eliminated by an increase in the student services fee. Alternatives were discussed by the trustees by which combinations of actions could be taken to reduce the current tuition retention in part or entirely, by which the project list might be approved in whole or in part, and by which an increase in the service fee or no increase might be approved. President Corbally recommended that the board approve all of the projects listed, eliminate all of the tuition presently retained, and agree to approve, when submitted at the April 1978 meeting, an increase in the student services fee of $15 per year (for students at all campuses). Mr. Velasquez made the following motion: that the Board of Trustees approve the recommendations as submitted by the president of the University, viz., the projects as listed (Nos. 3 through 22 inclusive) and the issuance of parity bonds as described in the recommendation; and, also, to eliminate all of the tuition presently retained, with the understanding that such elimination will require an increase in the student services fee at all campuses of $15 per year per student. T h e student advisory vote was: Aye, Miss Cordon, Mr. Overstreet, Miss Winter; no, none. (Miss Winter said that she was in agreement with the concept of approval of the projects on the list and with the concept of tuition retention, but that she did not favor the imposition of a student

officers on the various projects and from students from the Urbana campus and from the Chicago Circle campus. A spokesman for the Undergraduate Student Association^ at Urbana raised no serious questions with the program, but objected to the lack of student input into its development. A speaker from Chicago Circle emphasized the desire of some students for a referendum on the Chicago Circle Pavilion, noting (as did Student Trustee Winter) that students at Chicago Circle appeared to be sharply divided on this project. s Under federal regulations governing advance re-funding issues, no further bonds may be issued without economic disadvantage until at least ninety days have elapsed, and prospective purchasers must be advised if another issue is planned after that period. This subsequent issue is called a parity bond.