FY1996 budget includes hikes for salary, academic programs

Ed Tate, UIC News Bureau

Hoping that the financial problems facing Illinois legislators won't stop
them from boosting the state's contribution to the UI, last week the
university board of trustees approved a budget proposal for next year that
requests a considerably greater increase in state money than the UI
received this year.

The proposal for fiscal year 1996-1997 asks for a 6.2 percent increase in
state appropriations for the UI's operations - a request larger than the
4.5 percent hike the university received this year.

"We have assembled the request with an eye on our most critical budget
needs, while recognizing that we cannot expect the state to meet the full
range of our fiscal requirements," said UI President James J. Stukel.
"After adequate salary needs, the largest single component of the request
addresses academic program improvements. Their focus is undergraduate
education, and particularly the efforts to restore our instructional
faculty base and to extend the benefits of technological advances to more
students and to more courses."

The budget proposal's highlights include salary increases for faculty and
staff members of about 4.5 percent, which would cost nearly $27 million,
and academic program improvements totalling $9.3 million.

The goal is "preserving the quality of the UI education," said Sylvia
Manning, vice president for academic affairs. "With faculty salaries in
Chicago there's a compression problem, which you haven't heard as much
about as the competitive problem in Urbana. Progress has been made but
there's still a way to go."

Academic funding increases include $4.1 million for "strengthening the
academic base" at UIC, Urbana and Springfield through employment of new
faculty members and teaching assistants; providing "capstone" courses and
research opportunities for upper-level students; improving or beginning
programs in selected colleges; and expanding the Discovery Program at UIUC.

University officials point out that at Urbana, for example, financial
pressures have meant the loss of 167 full-time-equivalent faculty positions
and increased class sizes over the past 10 years. The university also
proposes an investment of nearly $3.1 million in instructional technology
in classrooms and computer services for students and faculty.


Capital budget proposal

The UI's FY1997 list of proposed capital projects totals $81.3 million. No
state funds were appropriated this year for construction and renovation
projects, after the state gave the university about $31 million in each of
the prior two years for capital programs. Heading the new list is $12
million for repair and renovation projects on all three campuses.

Among the other projects, in descending order of priority, the UI is
requesting almost $7.9 million to match a similar amount of funds already
raised to help build a new $16 million agriculture library at Urbana, $4
million to start planning and designing a new $66 million College of
Medicine building at UIC, $9.5 million for a campus chiller system at UIUC
and nearly $2.3 million for new roads on the Springfield campus.

The UI's funding request goes to the Illinois Board of Higher Education,
the governor's office and the legislature, all of which can make changes,
resulting in a slightly different and usually smaller state appropriation
to the university.

Also at the Sept. 14 meeting at UIC, board members endorsed a revised $1.93
billion spending plan for the fiscal year that started July 1.

Urbana's revenues and expenditures will be about $909 million; UIC's will
be nearly $882 million; the Springfield campus budget is $36 million; and
universitywide administration and programs will be about $106 million. The
state share of the university's budget this year dropped for the sixth
consecutive year to 32.1 percent, the all-time low. State tax support made
up nearly half of the UI budget just 15 years ago.

"For all the hand-wringing that we do from time to time, we do need to
reflect on the good support we received from the state this year,"
commented board chair Thomas Lamont, D-Springfield.

Toward the meeting's end, Trustee Judith Calder, D-Glencoe, suggested an
installation ceremony for James Stukel, who became university president
Aug. 1. Calder represented the UI last year at a ceremony honoring John
Piderit, S.J., the new president of Loyola University Chicago. "Most
world-class universities have formal installation ceremonies, and we should
do no less," Calder said. Trustee Gravenhorst endorsed the idea and Lamont
agreed, suggesting that it deserves further consideration, but no action
was taken.


he UI Board of Trustees' buildings and grounds committee enthusiastically
endorsed the architect's final design for the new ambulatory care facility
at UIC, a four-story building that would straddle Taylor Street and have
second-floor walkways linking it with the UI Hospital, Neuropsychiatric
Institute, Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Wood Street parking garage.
Estimated to cost at least $55 million to 60 million to build, it will
house physicians' office, examining rooms, a cancer center, an MRI facility
(magnetic resonance imaging), and centers for children and adolescents,
dermatology and allergy, surgery and other specialties.
Architects from Perkins and Will, Chicago, displayed drawings and a model
of the red brick and glass asymmetrical building that will be located on
currently open areas at the northwest and southwest corners of Taylor and
Wood streets. "It's just a sensational building," said Trustee Susan
Gravenhorst, R-Lake Bluff. "It will add class and excitement to the medical
center." Trustee Lamont added, "Not only am I impressed with the
aesthetics, but with the speed with which it was developed and the way it
has been financed."
The medical center's strategic investment fund and a bond issue will cover
construction costs of the ambulatory care facility, officials said, with
repayment coming from income generated by clinic operations. The board
awarded Perkins & Will a second contract for the project, this one for more
than $2.1 million, for bid-document preparation, construction
administration and related services. Trustees also approved hiring Turner
Construction Co. of Chicago for construction management on the
ambulatory-care project at a cost of about $1 million.
There was less good news on the progress of the $6.7 million admissions
building for Urbana. Craig Bazzani, vice president for business and
finance, told trustees about the demise of Ware Associates of Chicago, the
architectural firm hired to design the building. The plans were about "95
percent" complete, he said, so a new architect will have to be hired to
finish the design work and preparation of bid documents. Due to the
complications created, Bazzani said, "We may see some erosion of the
quality of the building." The financial impact of the change in architects,
which he estimated to be $500,000, may mean less costly amenities and
cosmetics in the facility.
"In light of things that have happened recently, I would encourage you to
redouble your efforts to make sure that these (bidders) are solid people,
financially sound and capable of doing the work," trustee William
Engelbrecht, R-Henry, told university officials.