University of Illinois

President // Speeches and Statements

TESTIMONY BY B. JOSEPH WHITE
Appropriations -- Higher Education Committee
95th General Assembly
February 23, 2007

 

Representative Miller, Representative Joyce, Representative Meyers, Members of the Committee:

A great university is a dynamic, living institution. We strive constantly to balance stability with renewal, tradition with necessary change. This is the case in every part of university life: intellectual, cultural, social, and athletic.

I begin with this observation because the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and the President are responsible for what most would agree is the state’s most valuable asset in creating a prosperous future for the people of Illinois. We do this by educating with quality and on a large scale: 70,000 students across three campuses. We do it through research. UIC continues to be among America’s top fifty universities in federally funded research, especially in biomedical science, and our Urbana campus is such a research powerhouse that we took in stride the recent announcement of a $500 million, ten-year grant from BP on biofuels to U of I, UC-Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Our brainpower attracts the research dollars that will solve the state’s and nation’s most pressing problems, creating new companies, industries, and jobs in the process.

Looking ahead, we have five strategic priorities for the University of Illinois. They are:

  • To make our Urbana campus America’s best public research university.
  • To make our Chicago campus America’s premier urban public research university.
  • To make our Springfield campus one of America’s top five small, public, liberal arts universities – a William & Mary of the Midwest.
  • To position the U of I Medical Center in Chicago and our health science colleges in Chicago, Rockford, Peoria, and Urbana for the next quarter century of education, research, and clinical health care.
  • To make the University of Illinois the nation’s leader in quality online education through the Global Campus Partnership.

We must fund achievement of these five priorities while ensuring that the quality education we provide is accessible and affordable. A U of I education is one of the world’s great gateways to opportunity and we must open that gateway to all we possibly can.

Here’s a reminder about our gateway of opportunity. Nationally, a college education versus high school means at least 70% higher lifetime earnings, a one-third lower lifetime unemployment rate, and a much higher propensity to vote. Yet while 85% of Americans graduate from high school, only about 30% graduate from college. I call this the 85/30 gap.

The gap is far worse for underrepresented minority groups. In Illinois, 77% of African Americans graduate from high school, 15% from college. For Latinos nationally, about 60% have a high school diploma and 12% a college degree. I have a great sense of urgency about closing these gaps and I will for the rest of my life. They represent a tragic underinvestment in human capital that is dashing individual dreams and weakening the competitiveness of Illinois and the nation.

So funding and achieving the aspirations of the University of Illinois – and investing in quality education from preschool through graduate school – is serious business for the state and our citizens.

We are grateful for the positive budget action from the state for the current year – the first after four years of flat or reduced budgets – and we hope state support continues to rebound. We are encouraged by the action taken yesterday by the Board of Higher Education that recommends an operating budget increase for public universities that extends this year’s level of state support.

The state of Illinois is the central, but not the exclusive, source of financial support for the U of I. Of a total budget that approximates $4 billion including employee benefits covered by the state, you provide about 25% of the U of I’s budget. You are our single largest stakeholder.

That’s why the state of Illinois is the first of five parties in what I call the Compact to support the U of I. We ask the state to do as much as it can because that helps reduce the burden on the second party to the Compact, tuition-paying students and their families. The third party is our own faculty who raise over $600 million a year in funded research. The fourth is private donors. In June we will announce the largest campaign in U of I history and one of the largest in the nation. Leadership of the University is the fifth party to the Compact; we must use every dollar entrusted to us wisely and constantly reallocate funds from lower to higher priorities.

I’d like to comment now on three matters – tuition, capital, and Chief Illiniwek – and then listen to your comments and questions.

The first subject is tuition increases. Let’s say that you get a call from a constituent who says that she is helping her child decide whether to go to U of I or a small private college. Financial aid makes the first year tuition at each university similar, close to $8,000. She says she read last spring that U of I increased tuition by 9.5% and she is worried: what if they do that again or even more this year? She thinks it’s an outrageous increase. By contrast, the private college has been raising tuition about 4% a year recently and expects to continue to do so. How, she asks, does U of I get away with this and how can she compare the four year cost of these two universities for her daughter?

So here’s your multiple choice question. If U of I raises first year tuition by 9.5% in our guaranteed tuition program for the class of 2011 entering next September, how does that compare to a private’s 4% annual increase over each of the next four years? Is our 9.5% the equivalent of:

  • 9.5% per year at the private? or
  • 4.2% per year? or
  • 2.3% per year?

The answer is 2.3%. So our 9.5% looks huge, the private’s 4% looks reasonable. We get the blame and they get more money. By the way, if we increased tuition next year by an apparently astronomical 15%, that would be the equivalent of 3.5% per year for four years – still much less than most private and non-resident public tuitions that routinely go up 5% and from a much higher base.

The moral of the story is this. Guaranteed tuition is a great thing. But when you hear that this state’s public universities, including U of I, are raising tuition near or above double digit rates, remember that you have to divide that percentage increase by about four to compare it to what privates and other universities without guaranteed tuition are doing.

The second subject is capital. FY07 is the fourth consecutive year without a regular capital budget. We need capital to protect the investment the state has made in existing facilities and to build new facilities vital to education, research, and health care delivery, especially to the poor. We are doing our part to generate capital through private gifts, internal reallocation, and the Academic Facilities Maintenance Fund Assessment. Our Trustees approved the assessment a year ago – with strong support from our students – to address deferred maintenance needs in our classrooms and instructional labs.

Our most urgent priorities for securing capital funds from the state are these:

  • Repair and renovation at all campuses ($21 million)
  • Lincoln Hall at UIUC ($53 million)
  • College of Medicine, Rockford ($14 million, a 50/50 state match)
  • Dentistry Remodeling ($20 million)
  • UIUC South Farms ($43 million)
  • UIC Chemistry Building ($20 million)

Lincoln Hall is the cornerstone building of public higher education in the state of Illinois. It is in disgraceful condition. I ask that you join with us in making Lincoln Hall a functioning symbol of the greatness of the University of Illinois – twenty-one Nobel Prize winners, leading contributions to the Green Revolution, greatness in engineering, computer science, and more.

Yesterday, the IBHE approved a set of capital budget recommendations for next year that includes all but the last of the set of projects I just noted. We hope we can count on your support to get each of them funded.

My final subject is Chief Illiniwek. On Wednesday evening, we witnessed the final performance of an 81-year tradition. For the many who see in Chief Illiniwek honor, bravery, pride and unity, the end of the tradition is a personal loss that engenders feelings of anger and sadness. For those who see the tradition in a negative light, it comes as a relief.

My job, and Chancellor Herman’s, is to support the action announced last Friday. Our responsibility is to remind members of our University community that U of I has many great traditions to carry us forward that are now more important to us than ever. It is our job to focus the community on the future and remind everyone that our main business at U of I is delivering great education, doing great research, and serving the state of Illinois … that’s why we seek your support for the University.

Most people have been quietly thoughtful during the controversy over Chief Illiniwek. But I and other University leaders have received strong and even hateful expressions from both supporters and detractors of the Chief in recent weeks. These are disturbing. In dealing with them and thinking about the matter, I have been inspired by Lincoln’s words at the end of the Civil War:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all … let us strive on to finish the work we are in….”

Speaking for myself, I feel malice toward none. I think it is a time for understanding and forgiveness. Let’s work together to make a great institution even greater in the years ahead.

Thank you.