University of Illinois

House Higher Education Appropriations Committee

Testimony
President B. Joseph White
March 6, 2008

Representative Miller, Representative Joyce, Representative Myers, and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today. More important, thank you for your support of the University of Illinois.

I will keep my remarks brief since I want to be responsive to matters on your minds.

First, I want on behalf of the University of Illinois family to note with sorrow the tragic event at Northern Illinois University. This event, along with the still recent tragedy at Virginia Tech University, has caused us to focus intensely on prevention and containment of campus violence as never before. A mother wrote me after NIU that, “We don’t expect to send our children to college and get them home in caskets.” This is a responsibility with which my colleagues and I live every day. We are doing all we can to protect lives on our campuses in a society which has decided to live with three hundred million guns among us. That is a reality.

I would be happy later to hear your thoughts and answer your questions on this most serious matter.

January 31 marked the beginning of my fourth year as president of the state’s most valuable asset – the University of Illinois.

Just last night, I was reminded again of the value of the University to our state. A year ago, Trustee Frances Carroll introduced me to Julieanna Richards, the founder of HistoryMakers. In Chicago, in a South Michigan Avenue walkup, I encountered the greatest collection of videotaped interviews with high achieving African Americans – 1,800 of them – in the world. Julieanna’s achievement in putting this collection together is remarkable – but she knew the collection needed a permanent home and the archiving expertise and educational reach of a good partner. She chose the University of Illinois.

Last night, I joined a large group of students and faculty to listen, live, to one HistoryMaker – Timuel Black, 89 years old – who enthralled the audience with his presentation on the history of Black Chicago from the 1600’s through his long lifetime.

Fiscal Year 2008 has been another remarkable year at the University of Illinois, thanks to the efforts of my colleagues. We saw the National Science Foundation award of the petascale computer – 500 times faster than today’s supercomputers -- to the Urbana campus, the opening of a recreation center to make the Springfield campus fully residential in character and the completion of a highly accomplished eight year term of service by Chancellor Sylvia Manning in Chicago.

We educate 70,000 young people across our three campuses and on-line at a time when a college education is, for many people, a necessary condition to achieve their dreams and contribute fully to society. We do $600 million a year in competitively won grant and contract research at a time when knowledge is the key to solving the problems about which we are concerned: energy, the environment, food, health, even happiness. We deliver university quality health care to thousands, including the poor, in Chicago and do more than any institution to prepare tomorrow’s doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and veterinarians for the state.

No one should miss the lesson of what happened when Motorola, under business duress, had to close its 125-person operation in the U. of I. Research Park in Champaign. In towns across our state, when manufacturing operations close down, we know what happens. Plants are shuttered and stay shuttered, devastating communities. By contrast, a month after Motorola’s decision to close, Yahoo announced its intention to open in Champaign. They moved into the Research Park, hired most of the Motorola employees, and life went on. This is the power of educated people and research in the global knowledge and information economy. We need much more of this in Illinois to have a prosperous future for our children and our state. U. of I. is the key to achieving it.

We are doing our very best to maintain the quality of the University of Illinois and ensure that it is accessible and affordable. This is difficult because quality costs and there is a teeter-totter relationship between state operating support and tuition and fee increases.

I want to mention the vital importance of capital to U. of I. and all of us in higher education. We’ve been a long time without it. The needs are urgent. I deeply hope that you and your colleagues can forge an agreement on capital in the upcoming session.

We have been successful in forging a Resource Compact to fund the University of Illinois in the face of new realities. The state continues to play a vital role in this Compact, along with our students and their families, our research faculty, private donors, and the administration. Indeed, I have launched a Resources Initiative intended to ensure that we get every possible dollar to the academic front lines and out of central administration and lower priority activities. We depend on the state for operating support, payment of employee benefits, and capital. The more you help us, the more confidence we can all have that the University of Illinois will continue to be excellent, affordable, and accessible – and, the state’s most valuable asset.

Again, thank you.