A request approved today by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees seeks an increase in state general funds appropriations of $82.7 million. The total operating funds request of $780.5 million represents an 11.9% increase from the current year’s $697.8 million appropriation. The increase would support four goals: enhancing student success; recruitment and retention of faculty members and staff; addressing inflation and other cost increases; and technological infrastructure needs.
The board’s request is the first step in the annual budget process and will be submitted for consideration by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the governor and the Legislature.
“State funding for higher education is an investment in a better future for the people of Illinois, one that provides indisputable returns,” University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen said. “We are grateful for the increased funding provided by our state’s leaders over the past few years and look forward to working with them in the months ahead to ensure that healthy investment in our universities remains a priority.”
The additional operating funds requested from the state would provide:
- $15.0 million for student success programs, including mental health services, assistance for underrepresented students or students with disadvantaged financial backgrounds, and financial support to encourage state residents to enroll as undergraduates at system universities.
- $46.3 million for continuing efforts to recruit and retain distinguished faculty – especially those from underrepresented groups – and for modest faculty and staff competitive compensation increases. The request makes note of significant enrollment increases at system universities in the past decade.
- $13.9 million to help address inflationary cost increases including energy costs and other utilities; the costs of compliance with state and federal requirements to use renewable energy and to decrease the system’s carbon footprint; and price increases in items excluding energy costs.
- $3.8 million to address increasing technology and cybersecurity costs in the face of growing cybersecurity threats; increasing reliance upon electronic systems and related data stores; and increasing costs for software and hardware beyond inflationary levels. The funding also would enable moderate upgrades to software and hardware that are crucial to students, faculty members and staff.
An additional item in the appropriation request would provide $3.6 million to support the Prairie Research Institute, which comprises five state scientific surveys in the areas of natural history, archaeology, geology, water and sustainable technology, as well as the Illinois Water Resources Center. In 2008, those elements were transferred from the state Department of Natural Resources to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Funding for PRI is below the level of funding it received in fiscal year 2009 even after receiving a 2.5% increase in the current fiscal year.
A $1.8 million portion of the requested increase for PRI would go toward the creation of the Illinois Integrated Water Information Center as proposed by the State Water Plan Task Force to position the university as a national leader on water science information and technology.
New trustees
In other business, the board welcomed two new trustees appointed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Carolyn Blackwell, a senior accountant with Champaign Asphalt Company, and Jesse H. Ruiz, a Chicago attorney and former deputy governor for education, were appointed to terms that would run through 2029, pending confirmation by the Illinois Senate.
Blackwell and Ruiz both are graduates of UIUC and have extensive backgrounds in the business world and in public service.
“I would like to thank Gov. Pritzker for selecting two outstanding individuals who will carry forward the board’s tradition of thoughtful leadership,” board Chairman Don Edwards said.
Shield T3
Killeen also briefed the board on the decision to wind down operations of the system’s Shield T3 LLC by the end of December. Shield T3 is a for-profit entity founded in 2020 by the system and its Discovery Partners Institute, initially to provide the SHIELD saliva-based testing for COVID-19 detection outside of the state of Illinois.
SHIELD tests were developed by UIUC during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and were widely deployed at U of I System universities and – through a separate entity known as SHIELD Illinois – throughout Illinois in support of the state’s COVID-19 strategy.
With the end of the pandemic health emergency earlier this year and a decline in the volume of COVID-19 tests being processed, Shield T3’s business is now ending, Killeen said.
“Shield T3 provided lifesaving testing during the most challenging periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking our revolutionary and reliable SHIELD test and making it available to many millions of people across the country and around the world,” Killeen said when the decision was announced in October.
Contract extension
Trustees voted to extend the contract of UIUC Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Josh Whitman by as many as five years – a three-year extension and two one-year contingent extensions that would run through 2033 – and increase his salary from $1,025,000 to $1.5 million, retroactive to July 1, with an increase to $1,725,000 effective July 1, 2028. The contract also includes annual retention payments to Whitman increasing from $300,000 in the current year to $375,000 in 2033.
Retirement
A resolution honoring Tom Bearrows, the longest-serving university counsel in the University of Illinois System’s history, was read into the official record. Bearrows will retire at the end of December after more than two decades of exemplary service. Since beginning in that role in 1997, he has served alongside 49 trustees, 11 board chairs, six presidents and five board secretaries.
