BG.06.01
April 24, 2006
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN SENATE
Committee on the Budget
2005-2006 Annual Report
The Senate
Committee on the Budget studies the University and campus budgets, the criteria
used to determine allocation of resources at our campus, and the educational
policy implications of budgetary decision-making. The committee makes
recommendations on proposed budgetary increases, as well as other matters that
fall within its purview.
The University of Illinois
has embarked on an ambitious strategic plan to advance rapidly and broadly
toward preeminence among public research universities in the
U.S. through leadership in education and the
national research agenda. At the same time the University is determined to
contribute to a better world for the State of Illinois, the nation, and the
global village through addressing critically important societal issues by our
research and teaching. Faced with this challenge, we must have a strong
budgetary base to fund our efforts and facilitate the proper functioning of the
necessary infrastructure.
Whereas recent economic situations in the State have
not been very supportive, we can be pleased that the University, in a short time
period, has developed new financial resources outside its traditional base and
diversified its funding sources. Research grants, industry partnerships, and
development efforts now play an increasingly important role in our budget. The
State’s role as the chief source of funds for this state institution has
declined over the years but it still remains our most important patron. It was
against this backdrop that the committee set the agenda for 2005-2006 to
deliberate on our proposal for fiscal year 2008.
The committee lauds the
University administration for understanding the importance of a dual strategy of
embracing our traditional funding sources while aggressively pursuing new
avenues. We must deal with the most urgent budgetary issues for the campus, and
at the same time, we must come up with solutions for the challenges for the near
future.
The 2005-06 Senate Budget Committee focused on
three issues relevant to the budget process for fiscal year 2008:
(1) deferred
maintenance;
(2) budgetary implications of interdisciplinary efforts;
(3) the
danger of further decline in State support. The following report and
recommendations were transmitted to Provost Linda Katehi on April 21.
(1) Deferred Maintenance
The committee wants to reinforce the
University’s renewed concern for deferred maintenance. There are obviously
other concerns that are central to the campus’s future, such as faculty talent
and compensation, new programmatic initiatives, the quality of our undergraduate
and graduate programs, etc.
However, as the last several decades have
demonstrated, it is all too easy to neglect the maintenance of our
infrastructure. Indeed, buildings, classrooms, offices and labs have
deteriorated so badly in some sectors of the campus that they threaten our
ability to attract and retain top faculty and students. The state of some
facilities also erodes the quality of programs and productivity of existing
faculty, staff and students.
The Board of Trustees recently approved a
student assessment to assist with covering costs for addressing deferred
maintenance issues
While this may be among the few alternatives available for
generating the necessary funding, it is unfortunate that the costs for restoring
buildings that were used by past generations of students and will serve future
generations of students will need to be covered by current students even if they
do so willingly. The buildings on this campus are some of the best assets of
the State, and the State should take a much more active role in their
maintenance and renovations.
Recommendations
:
(1) We endorse the idea of gradually increasing
set-asides to bring our budget for deferred maintenance within the range of our
peer institutions.
(2) We encourage a better dialogue between the
University and the State, through President White, Chancellor Herman, and other
appropriate University representatives to boost the priority of maintenance and
renovation of our buildings.
(2) Budgetary Implications of Interdisciplinary
Efforts
A hallmark in the campus’s strategic plan is the
encouragement of interdisciplinary research and educational programs by bringing
faculty and students from various disciplines and colleges together for the
common goal of groundbreaking research and teaching. We support this initiative
and direction because through such interdisciplinary efforts our niche, and
indeed, our future are defined and new disciplines are born. Nevertheless, we
caution against the potential pitfalls, which come in the forms of
infrastructure and prestige.
Interdisciplinary efforts are costly in that it
usually means bringing scholars out of their usual department niche to new
locales on campus, sometimes new buildings with new supporting personnel. These
new units sometimes receive centers grants, Title VI, or core funding from
agencies like the National Science Foundation.
Regardless, there still is
tremendous demand on the campus’s budget.
Perhaps more importantly, these
interdisciplinary efforts may go against our very effort of trying to achieve
preeminence among public institutions. Like it or not, we as a campus are
judged by various sorts of rankings, and these rankings, be they U.S. News
and World Report’s or National Research Council’s, are invariably
discipline-based. Whether interdisciplinary efforts would pay off to increase
disciplinary prestige is an open question. They can, but there are risks to
balance
.
Recommendations
:
(1) We encourage caution, when planning for
interdisciplinary units, in the budget of their infrastructure in terms of
personnel, office space and other resources that would otherwise be available to
existing academic programs. Having multiple offices can be a scholar’s pride in
the 1980s and 1990s, but such practice has become increasingly impractical under
the dire economic circumstances in the new millennium.
(2) We suggest a careful SWOT analysis (in
long-term pay-off, especially potential pay-off to established disciplines that
are our core strengths) of planned interdisciplinary units before committing
budget.
(3) The Danger of Further Decline in State
Support
The State remains a significant source of
recurring income.
There is concern that some State legislators may want to
reduce our support because we are not admitting children from their
constituencies who passed our admissions standards when the University opened
its doors to other (out-of-state or international) students. A few of these
legislators think that since tax payers’ children are being denied admissions,
the University should not need as much funding. News articles in the
Sun-Times, Daily Herald and Daily Illini made false
accusations, leading to a perception that the University is not taking as many
in-state students in recent years. In truth, the 2005 freshman class was 89.5%
in-state compared to 87.4% in 2003. Because of more applicants, admission
standards have increased, but there are no quotas adversely affecting in-state
applicants. This negative publicity scenario endangers our future funding from
the State.
There are, however, political ramifications to
limiting growth in admissions. Because of the balloon in number of
applications, and graduating high school cohorts of students increasing in size,
remaining at the same admission numbers likely results in de facto tightening of
admission standards. The result is that many students who would have been
qualified to attend the University in the past will not be able to do so in the
future. Our twin aims are to further improve the quality of our programs and to serve a large state patronage. This problem is circumvented by allowing a
temporary increase to the number of admitted students. But how can this be
achieved in a time of budgetary constraints?
There are some possible solutions.
Recommendations
(1) We recommend making public in different
media and forums, especially to the state legislation, that there are no quotas
and that we have admitted more in the past few years: 7,563 incoming freshman in
2005 compared to 6,801 in 2003. Because of the increase in numbers, we deserve
more State funding.
(2) We suggest strategically increasing the
number of visiting as well as tenure-system faculty and using these more
effectively in teaching and a better and more effective use of teaching
assistants so that existing faculty can effectively reach/teach a larger number
of students.
(3) We encourage the consideration of a
redistribution of teaching loads (both within and across units) so that again
each faculty member handles an increase in the number of students.
There are positives and negatives associated
with each of these recommendations. But perhaps the negatives of these possible
solutions are outweighed by the negatives of the political as well as economic
ramifications of failing to admit an increased number of undergraduate
students.
* * * * * * * * *
COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET
Tim Liao,
Chair
Alyson
Kirkpatrick
Gay
Miller
Peter Nardulli
Alison Schmulbach
Michael Andrechak, ex officio