HE.03.11
April 28, 2003
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign Senate
Final;Information
HE.03.11 Report on the Board of Higher Education Meeting, April 1, 2003.
The BHE met at Danville Area Community College. Chair Steven Lesnik called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. He announced that the Governor had appointed a new chair of the Board and turned the gavel over to the new chair, Jim Kaplan. (Kaplan was already a member of the Board; Lesnik will remain a member.) Lesnik commented that Kaplan’s close ties to the Governor and his advisors should be of great value to higher education. This shift in responsibility occasioned a number of statements of appreciation of the work of Lesnik and anticipation of working with Kaplan. Kaplan read a prepared statement pledging to do his “utmost to defend higher education, the quality of our institutions and their high national ranking.” “The challenges are formidable but education is the heart and soul of society in which we live.” He stressed the need to stick together rather than to freelance in Springfield and promised to work tirelessly to advance higher education and bring us back to number one in the nation.
President Alice Jacobs welcomed us to the College. She noted we were meeting in a one hundred-year-old building in a room originally a hospital ward for Civil War veterans. The College, begun in 1946 as an extension center of the U of I, enrolls about 6,000 students as a result of significant enrollment growth in recent years. The average age of students is 30 with almost half below the poverty line. The College is involved in a variety of job creation programs and has a degree completion program on campus through EIU.
BHE Director Dan LaVista commented on the faculty diversity report presented at the meeting. Nothing is finalized on the budget although closure is imminent with the Governor’s budget message April 9. Mailing of “Newsclips” (newspaper articles relative to higher education) will be discontinued with the exception of Board members but the material will be available on a daily basis on the BHE website. (Saving $25K of a current $30K cost.)
Ken Andersen reported on behalf of the Faculty Advisory Council. The FAC supports legislation to place a faculty member on the BHE. He stressed the urgency of opposing that portion of HB3511 dealing with SURS. The proposed legislation would terminate the current Board as of June 30, with the Governor appointing a new Board, its chair, (currently elected by the Board) and the Executive Director. Such action would expose the Board to the possibility of significant political influence and endanger the ability to fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities. He transmitted the formal FAC recommendation to establish a seventh goal to The Illinois Commitment (attached), an action endorsed by the EIU Senate and the faculty at McKendree College. The FAC had not sought such endorsements but now intends to do so. He provided the Board with a summary of concerns (attached) including those about the budget situation discussed by the FAC at its March 28 meeting.
Board Member Sam Gove asked that the addition of a 7th goal to The Illinois Commitment be on the June agenda and vigorously seconded the concern about HB3511 regarding SURS.
Reports of the other advisory groups were brief. The Student Advisory Committee expressed concern about tuition increases, presented a certificate honoring Steven Lesnik as Board member of the year and noted the reelection of the current chair and student Board representative. Michael Murphy of the Council of Community College Presidents said that within 72 hours the community colleges had met the Governor’s set-aside goal. He urged that the adversarial relationship with the legislature be remedied, suggesting that a group of elected officials, higher education officials and the BHE meet to discuss the situation. He opposed the addition of a faculty member to BHE.
Douglass Day of the BHE presented the report on faculty diversity. The report concluded “minority faculty representation in Illinois higher education is shockingly low: African-Americans 5%, Latinos 2%. Underrepresented faculty feel isolated, overburdened, unappreciated.” Opportunities exist for improvement and strong leadership is needed to achieve it. The number of minority faculty is increasing but very slowly. The doctoral pool is shallow but the master’s degree pool is an opportunity for community colleges to find faculty. Many potential minority faculty that utilize the state’s fellowship programs leave the state. We need to improve the search process and alter the “chilly” campus climate. Improvements suggested include placing the state fellowship programs to encourage minority faculty under one board, support be provided for searches and hiring and campus climates assessed and improved with greater accountability. Final recommendations will be made in August after the Supreme Court has ruled on the Michigan admissions cases. Meanwhile the report will be widely circulated with a request for comments.
A summary of pending legislation was distributed to the Board with the comment that little will be known about budgets until April 7. Many bills will not clear the house of origin before the deadline of April 4. There are numerous bills of interest ranging from line item budgeting to tuition limits and making the three U of I campuses separate bargaining units.
The remainder of the agenda was uncontroversial with approval of new programs and allocation of grant funds for work-study and medical education. If the Governor applies his cutbacks on grants to the BHE, which is unclear at this time, these amounts would be reduced.
Ken Andersen, Chair, FAC to the BHE
Senate Representative to the FAC