Dividing the UI's increased operating budget

By Melissa Mitchell

Last July, the Illinois General Assembly presented the UI with a welcome
surprise in the form of an operating budget that included a $15.2 million
increase from last year. 

And by now, it's probably no surprise that the state appropriation included
money to fund a salary program that is providing an average pay increase of
3 1/2 percent for most employees. As always is the case, some employees
will actually receive more, and others less, depending on priorities set by
individual campus units.

"We're trying to do a fair amount on salary," said Larry Faulkner, vice
chancellor for academic affairs. "At least compared to recent years, this
will feel substantial," he said, adding that "salary has been a high
priority item among the campus deans, whose emphasis has been on ensuring
competitiveness without stripping our ability to address programmatic
needs."

Faulkner noted that the UI's salary increase compares well with those
provided at public peer institutions this year. In fact, he said, "we
expect to have some of the higher percentages in the Big Ten this year."
Indeed, for most faculty and staff members, increased salaries will be the
most obvious benefit of this year's beefier budget. But by far the biggest
beneficiaries, according to Faulkner, are academic programs. 

"All aspects of campus life will benefit from an improved budget year," he
said. "The things we're trying to address will affect the lives of faculty,
staff and students in several ways - through classroom renovation, through
the purchase and installation of new equipment, through an improved
capacity for important new research initiatives."

Worth noting, he added, is that "not all of what we're seeing - in terms of
new revenue for academic programs - is the fruit of new state funding. A

lot is the result of the campus's renewed ability to address needs by
reallocation of its own funds through comprehensive and carefully
considered measures over the past four to five years. In the past, we have
been so constrained by our own budgeting commitments and lack of new funds.
We should congratulate ourselves because we're beginning to see the ability
to do something new again."

Among the funds made available through internal reallocation prescribed by
the so-called DeVor plan - in effect, the recommendations of a strategic
planning committee chaired by engineering professor Richard DeVor - are
$500,000 for classroom renovation. The DeVor plan was adopted by the campus
in 1991, but was not implemented until last year, due to budget shortfalls
in recent years.

One of the key elements of this year's effort to direct new funds to
academic areas involves the Discovery Program, Faulkner said. The new
program, which aims to enhance the freshman experience at the UI by various
means - most notably through the creation of small freshman seminars - will
serve 1,500 students this semester in its inaugural term.

"Another set of commitments relates to general education," Faulkner said.
"We're still trying to fund and develop the general education components
mandated by the [Urbana-Champaign] Senate in 1989." Faulkner said $350,000
will be directed to those ongoing initiatives. "Basically, we're paying
bills for things we've been working on, i.e., implementation of the
Composition II and Quantitative Reasoning I course requirements."

In addition, he said, some new money has been earmarked for covering costs
associated with the implementation this year of a common course list for
new freshmen - another change mandated by the general education
requirements.

Faulkner said the campus also will direct new funds toward "curricular
renewal," that is, making money available to a couple of colleges, such as
Commerce and Business Administration, to fund changes in its foreign
language requirements.

Yet another component of this year's plan to improve the university's
delivery of undergraduate education involves "focusing on resolving access
problems."

"We will be putting money into impacted areas where students were having
problems with access to courses," Faulkner said.

Finally, he said, priorities have been shifted to ensure that new funds
will be used to make "an investment in active learning." By that, Faulkner
said, he means "trying to resolve long-standing problems associated with
large, unsectioned general education courses where students just sit and
listen to a lecturer. To address the problem, "we're trying to find ways of
dividing the large lectures," in most cases, by adding discussion groups.
"We're also focusing - in the long run - on a scheme to bring more faculty
to campus" in order to increase the number of sections offered, he said.

On a related note, Faulkner mentioned that before Robert Resek stepped down
recently from his post as vice president for academic affairs, he "invested
$150,000 on each campus in new faculty positions, with the condition that
departments receiving them are able to provide improved delivery of
undergraduate instruction."

Faulkner said this year's budget also includes new money for "expansion of
the Campus Honors Program, minority fellowships, educational technologies
and classroom renovation - which will involve some investment in teaching
tools."

Faulkner added that "the better part of $1 million" remains unallocated.
After reviewing updated proposals, Faulkner and the Budget Strategies
Committee will distribute remaining funds to units whose program needs best
match current goals and objectives.