Minutes board of Trustees of Illinois State University May 8, 2009

It has been just a fantastic year. I was preparing a speech a couple of weeks ago and had written down a list of sort of significant university accomplishments over the past year and I ended up with two pages with single-spaced material. We have had a phenomenal year and there have been moments throughout this year that were literally magical and you mentioned one of them, at least for me. The Library invited Adlai Stevenson back to give a lecture – it was a wonderful lecture that was well attended – and just before he began his remarks he asked me to come to the podium and he presented me with a letter that Jesse Fell wrote sometime in the 1860s I believe in which Jesse written the CEO of the railroad company that put tracks through this part of the state and Jesse was complimenting the railroad for completing that project without using slave labor. I can’t tell you the chills it gave me to hold that letter and to present it to the Library to become part of our archives and That will be a spectacular addition to our archives.

I also want to echo Trustee McCuskey’s thanks to the Campus Communication Committee for this morning’s program. Under the leadership of our Sustainability Coordinator, Enid Cardinal, and our student leadership, Illinois State has become an outstanding example of thinking globally and acting locally regarding sustainability, and we have received a great deal of national recognition for our efforts.
I also want to congratulate Geno on being elected to a second term as Student Trustee—the first time in our history, and I also want to thank all of our Trustees for attending last night’s dinner that included our past Trustees. In the past dozen years, Illinois State has positioned itself as a top public University regionally and nationally, and our strong and cohesive governing board has played a huge role in that success, so thank all of you for your many efforts. Matt, I also look forward to working with you as our new Student Body President—and Ted, thank you for all you have done for Illinois State.

As you know, the Illinois General Assembly is busy discussing Governor Quinn’s budget proposal for FY2010. If the higher education portion of that proposal were enacted, Illinois State would see an operating budget of approximately $86.2 million, a 1.3 percent or $1.1 million increase over our original FY2009 appropriation. More significantly the proposal includes $54 million in capital funding for the rehabilitation of our Fine Arts Complex as well as $1.5 million in badly needed capital renewal funds, which would help address our growing list of deferred maintenance projects.

Governor Quinn’s plan, at least until Wednesday afternoon, included calls for university employees to contribute 10 percent rather than 8 percent into the State University Retirement System, but he had a meeting with retired teachers and they made their views known and he wiped that proposal off the table.

The Governor’s budget is predicated on tax increases and other statutory changes, and it is likely that the plan will be modified before passage by the state legislature. I have been and will continue to be in close contact with our local legislative leaders, who have consistently demonstrated their support for Illinois State University.

I will also continue working with our shared governance leaders, campus administration and Board of Trustees to determine what the budget might mean for salary increases, campus enhancement projects and tuition rates for the coming academic year.

Because of the budget uncertainty and our desire to keep tuition as affordable as possible for our students and their families, we have decided to wait until the General Assembly and Governor act on the state spending plan before bringing a 2009-2010 tuition and fee and room and board recommendation to the Board. Therefore, you can expect that resolution placed before you at our July meeting.

As I speak, Steve Bragg and his wife Anne are probably unpacking boxes in their new home in Florida. On April 29^th we held a very nice reception for him at the Alumni Center and Dan Brady arranged to have a legislative resolution honoring Steve’s years of service to Illinois State and thanking him for his innumerable accomplishments at the University.
The search for the next Vice President for Finance and Planning is well underway. The University search committee is chaired by Dr. George Rutherford of Physics—and we are utilizing the able assistance of Greenwood and Associates search consultants. Our goal is to announce the appointment by the time classes resume in August. I want to thank Dr. Dianne Ashby, who will provide administrative oversight to the division during the search process.

I am pleased to announce that Janet Krejci will take the position of dean of Mennonite College of Nursing beginning August 1.   Dr. Krejci served as associate dean for undergraduate programs at Marquette University College of Nursing from 2004 until 2007, when she accepted an American Council on Education Leadership Fellowship.  She was named a Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Executive Fellow in 2008. Dr. Krejci earned her Ph.D at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.  Her research and teaching focuses on nursing leadership development, nurse retention, workforce diversity, and enhancement of acute and long-term nursing care.

For fall 2009, we have received more than 14,000 freshmen applications. The academic quality of our applicants is exceptional in terms of ACT scores, Grade Point Average and class rank. Our admitted students’ average ACT jumped four-tenths of a percent from last year to 24.8. The average grade point rose five-tenths of a percent to 3.48.

In Athletics, since joining the Missouri Valley Conference in 1982, the Illinois State Athletics Department has won 133 conference championships.  The Redbird women’s golf team added the latest title to that total a couple of weeks ago after capturing its league-record 10^th conference crown. Not only did the team win, but Stacey Miller was the individual medalist and head coach Darby Sligh was named the Valley Coach of the Year for the second-straight season.

Good morning. The Campus Communication Committee would like to thank Enid Cardinal for a very insightful presentation. As a long-time member of this community, I am very proud of the progress we have made in the area of sustainability to the point of being considered a leader amongst our peers.

Progress is the hallmark of ISU. We keep moving forward in many areas as President Bowman noted in his remarks. One example of this institution’s amazing resiliency is the fact that in the fall, the academic area will begin with four Deans selected within a year. Yet they don’t seem to miss a beat. In fact, resolutions in front of the board today show the same dedication and resourcefulness to continue to serve the needs of students by offering four new programs, despite the tough economic times.

It is difficult to talk about tough economic times without mentioning Steve Bragg. For almost a decade, he has helped steer this institution through leaner years of state support. We are thankful to him for that and wish him the best. Although we recognize President Bowman’s eye for talent, we know that Steve Bragg’s successor will have big shoes to fill.

The end of the spring semester also brings us closer to budget negotiations in Springfield. As those reach a high point, the Campus Communication Committee would like the Board to use its influence to continue to advocate the following positions on our behalf:

• 
  More funding is critical for the University to continue on its path of excellence. We are encouraged by the increase included in Governor Quinn’s proposal and are hopeful that they will survive the negotiations. The campus needs it to keep moving forward and our students’ families need it to relieve some of the financial pressures they are experiencing during this economic downturn.
  
  
• 
  Any attempt to reform pension plans must take into consideration that the current pension plan remains a valuable recruitment and retention tool for the University. The changes that have been floated around would have the unintended effect of creating a second class citizenry and would also undermine the retention efforts the University has made recently by enhancing compensation through its mid-year salary enhancement program.
  
  
• 
  Over the past several years, there have been seemingly small changes to employee health benefits. However, combined, all those changes have become quite substantial and when one factors in all the proposed changes to pension plans and health benefits, it is clear that they threaten the integrity of our recruitment and retention efforts and possibly the well-being of our annuitants. Faculty and staff are the University’s most valuable resource and we must do all that we can to protect our ability to hire and retain the best and the brightest.
  

Mr. Adams: Good morning. In terms of fiscal items we had a House Appropriation Committee meeting yesterday It is a committee with a wide variety of members and talents I should say and President Bowman tried his best to explain the retention and recruitment issues to a young fellow who is on the committee who used to be in the recruitment area and we now have made at least three efforts at it and I think we are making progress. But I wanted to let you know after that committee meeting one of the members that has been on it a long, long time and we have done a lot of business with him came up to me and said if this presidential thing doesn’t work out, that guy should form a company and teach people how to participate in front of these committees because it is a masterful job.

It’s no surprise the state has got at least $11 billion deficit – they are not going to make all of that up. While I would like to tell you we are going to get the Governor’s recommendation, I don’t really believe that is the case. I think it is more likely that we will get last year’s number. We should probably keep in mind last year’s number is an increase compared to what we were allowed to spend last year. There is a group in the House working on capital – that is obviously good news for all of us. I know that in the Democratic caucus they were presented two days ago with something slightly more than $1 billion worth of revenue enhancements that could be used to bond a big capital program. There were a large number of items on that list and some of them are going to be very difficult to pass. It is interesting that Senator Cullerton, the new president of the Senate, was asked to come to that meeting, so I think we are making progress in that area. I don’t think that there is any question that they are going to try to run some kind of an income tax package in the House. They may do it without a capital bill but they have never done it in my career without a capital bill. It is really difficult to get members to vote for it with absolutely nothing on the other side.

We have some substantive bills that we are particularly interested in. As you know the President’s favorite all time project is the campus chiller. We have a version of that which Vice President Ashby is very involved in and it is the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act and that sounds kind of like a chiller project in a way, and we now have that out of the Senate committee – we introduced it in the House so it is out of the second House committee and came out of that committee unanimously – I am confident that we will get that to the Governor’s desk. The short version is that legislation in this environment means that somebody in the next year to two is going to get a scholarship that they may well have not been able to get because we will be prohibited from using monies on investments that aren’t doing quite as well as we wish. This has been adopted by several states already but it is a very dry but important piece of legislation in terms of the Foundation and how they are able to use their funds.

In terms of the pension plan and healthcare – I don’t think there is any question that they are going to negotiate the healthcare up some. I don’t think anyone is going to go from $92/month to $327/month, but I do think there will be some increases. I also believe, and this will be important, as those of you in the system know, at the end of this month is the choice period for any changes to be made, there will be another one. AFSME will force that on the administration. I think there is a lot of support for instituting a two-tiered or perhaps multi-tiered pension system. I think the amount of money involved given the $11 billion problem is too tempting for them not to try to go down this path. If you institute a two-tier system exactly the way the administration laid it out, it might generate between $90-$100 billion over 40 years. If they can get that on the books then they can simply avoid payments into the systems probably to the tune of $3.5 billion/year for a couple of years and along with whatever income tax package they put together that will be the way they will claim that they put together a balanced budget and get themselves out of here. There is a lot of support for this.