PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 21, No. 12, Jan. 17, 2002

State funds fall short; campus units prepare to cut budgets

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
(217) 244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Photo by Bill Wiegand "We are determined in all of this to protect the quality of undergraduate and graduate education."  – Richard Herman, UI provost

Midway through the fiscal year, administrative and service units on the UI's Urbana campus have been asked to cut their budgets by 2.5 percent and academic units to trim their expenditures by 1.25 percent.

A $15.2 million shortfall for the Urbana campus prompted the rescissions, the result of Gov. George Ryan's cutting $34 million from the UI budget.

In a Jan. 5 e-mail letter to faculty and staff members, Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Provost Richard Herman said that reserves and other funds will be reallocated to cover approximately $8 million of the campus's budget deficit; the remaining funds will be derived from reduced expenditures among campus units.

The library was exempted from the budget rescission because of its crucial supporting role in academics and research throughout the institution. Moreover, the library already is underfunded and further reductions at this time might compromise educational quality, Herman said.

Some hiring plans and infrastructure improvement projects may have to be delayed or canceled because of the cash deficit; however, campus officials believe delaying renovations to classrooms and laboratories may compromise the campus’s ability to remain competitive in attracting and retaining faculty members and students, Herman said.

Officials also believe progress on certain capital projects is vital to the university's educational and research missions, such as construction of the Post-Genomic Institute and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications facility as well as the proposed renovations of Lincoln Hall and the Microelectronics Laboratory.

With a new fiscal year beginning July 1, campus officials are concerned that this year's cutbacks may become permanent baseline budget reductions. Should that happen, unit administrators have been advised that campus reserves cannot permanently assume the burden for more than half the rescission; unit administrators have been cautioned to prepare for the possibility of absorbing the full reduction over two years.

A tuition surcharge for new on-campus students put into effect in fall 2001 was slated to pay for expansion of academic programs, enhancement of the library, improved advising and some infrastructure improvements. Campus officials are trying to avoid using those funds to cover the budget shortfall.

"We are determined in all of this to protect the quality of undergraduate and graduate education," Herman said. "We entered into a compact with present and future students when we asked them to pay the surcharge. We are committed to that end."

If the budget shortfall becomes permanent, students may be asked to help out. At the Jan. 16 and 17 board of trustees meeting, Urbana campus officials were to propose that in the event of a permanent budget reduction tuition be increased $196 to cover 25 percent of the shortfall with the remaining 75 percent covered through reallocation. The proposal would be an approach consistent universitywide, Herman said.

Although the proposal was to be discussed at the January board of trustees meeting, resolution is not expected until March when the state clarifies its budget picture and the board of trustees meets again.

With state funding declining, campus officials plan to concentrate on cultivating other sources of capital.

"The state share of public university budgets has been decreasing for several decades," Herman said. "Consistent with this, universities increased their efforts to gather private funds, whether those are from corporations or foundations or individuals. We have been quite successful in this arena and expect to continue emphasizing development."

Despite budgetary constraints, Herman said he and Cantor are focused on securing the significant programmatic gains that have been made across the campus during the past few years and on finding ways to progress on initiatives under
development.