UIUC Senate Observer Report on BOT Meeting
14 November, 2007
Springfield, Illinois

All the material and agenda items for the meeting are available on the University of Illinois Board of Trustees web site:  http://www.uillinois.edu/trustees/agendas.cfm

Chair Eppley called the board to order at 9:20am and the Secretary of the Board called the role.

In the public comment portion of the meeting, Susan Navabi, a junior at UIC and member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), called the board’s attention to the situation at UIC involving equal pay and treatment for U of I employees represented by Service Employees International Union Local 73.

During the Plans and Priorities portion of the meeting, a presentation on a proposed U of I Energy Policy was given by the Provost of UIUC and UIC.  This policy was later voted on and approved by the board.  The Policy states four goals for the University:

1. Reduce energy consumption and cost
2. Measure energy consumption
3. Reduce our reliance on fossil fuels
4. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Each campus, working with the University Administration, must develop a plan to achieve these goals.
Each of the respective campus senates should expect to be involved in the planning process.

A presentation by VPAA Rao on Supplemental Student Financial Aid was presented.  This presentation included three recommendations for changes to the current policy:

1.  A name change from MAP Supplemental Funding to Supplemental Aid.
2. An increase in eligibility from 4 ½ calendar years to 4 ½ FTE years.
3. A change in the UIC multiplier from 2 to 1.67. 

These recommendations were later voted and approved by the board.

The 2008 Operating Budget for the University was approved.  The budget included a 6.1% increase to $3.9 billion from the 2007 budget.

A capital spending plan was approved for $83 million which included $72.5 million for the building for the Blue Waters Project at UIUC to house the Petaflop computer, which will be built by NCSA as part of an NSF grant.  It is envisioned this will be the fastest computer in the world when it is completed in 2011.

Respectively submitted,

Joseph E. Finnerty
Professor of Finance