CHICAGO – The University of Illinois Board of Trustees on Thursday approved a request for increased state funding for the next fiscal year to continue building on educational and affordability initiatives that help drive the state’s economy and have pushed enrollment across the three-university system to an all-time high of over 89,000 students.
The budget request seeks $697.3 million in operating funds for fiscal year 2021, which begins July 1, up $75.3 million, or 12.1 percent, from the system’s state general funds appropriation for fiscal year 2020.
President Tim Killeen said the additional funding would support the system’s ongoing efforts to ensure academic excellence and innovative research at its best-in-class universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield, all while making college more accessible for Illinois’ students.
“This request seeks to build on the increased budgetary support we’ve seen from the state since the budget impasse and to continue the development of the next-generation workforce that Illinois requires,” Killeen said. “This robust investment would also help fuel the pioneering research and discovery that takes on and solves the problems facing society.”
In all, the University of Illinois System contributes $17.5 billion annually to the state’s economy, supporting more than 171,000 jobs. A record 22,600 students earned degrees from the system’s universities last year.
The requested budget, when adjusted for inflation, remains below the state funding provided in 2015, just before the state’s two-year budget impasse.
The additional funding would strengthen the University System’s efforts to attract and retain faculty to meet the demand created by growing enrollment. Enrollment has grown by 17 percent since 2009, while the number of tenure-track faculty has decreased. Under the budget request, $10 million would supplement the system’s five-year plan to build faculty numbers and $50.9 million would provide both a general salary program for faculty and staff and targeted wage improvements in disciplines where compensation at its universities has fallen behind.
Another $10 million would be devoted to additional scholarships for Illinois residents. The University System is now providing 53 percent of all undergraduate financial aid used by its students, more than the available federal and state aid combined.
The fiscal year 2021 request also seeks $725.5 million in capital funding aimed at addressing the most urgent needs at the system’s three universities. This includes $303.4 million for repair and renovation on each of the three campuses, cutting into the roughly $2 billion backlog in deferred maintenance. Another $241.1 million would be devoted to innovation and workforce-development projects such as an addition to the School of Art and Design in Urbana-Champaign, a new College of Business Administration building in Chicago and a new Information Sciences Building in Springfield. An additional $181 million would fund academic-library improvements.
The requests are 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.
Appointments
The board approved the appointment of Susan Martinis as the vice chancellor of research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Martinis has served in that role in an interim capacity since October 2017. Her appointment is effective Nov. 16.
Martinis has been a member of the faculty in Urbana since 2005, serving in a number of leadership roles, including head of the Department of Biochemistry and interim director of biomedical science and engineering at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. She also is the Stephen G. Sligar Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
In her role as interim vice chancellor of research, she has guided the university to a research and development portfolio that now includes more than $642 million in expenditures.
Martinis also is a graduate of the Urbana campus, earning her Ph.D. in 1990.
Trustees also approved the appointment of Michael Lipitz as the director of intercollegiate athletics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), effective Nov. 15. He succeeds Garrett Klassy, who accepted a position at the University of Nebraska.
Lipitz has been deputy athletics director at North Carolina State University, where he worked for eight years and led major renovation and building projects. Previously, Lipitz spent 11 years in senior leadership roles at the University of Maryland.
Lipitz holds a law degree from Villanova University and a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Maryland, where he was a captain of the men's tennis team.
In addition, trustees extended the contract of Josh Whitman, the athletic director at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, through 2023-24 and increased his compensation.
Whitman’s annual base salary is currently $668,561. Under the extended contract, Whitman’s base pay will increase to $750,000, with annual increases of $25,000 through 2023-24. The new contract terms are effective Nov. 15.
Whitman joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016 after serving as director of athletics at Washington University in St. Louis. He graduated from Urbana-Champaign with both a bachelor’s degree in finance and a law degree. Whitman also was a four-year starter on the football team at Urbana-Champaign and later played parts of four seasons in the NFL.
