PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 16, March 2, 2006

White discusses financial future of university

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by Matt Ferguson B. Joseph White

Five years and $500 million. That’s what UI President B. Joseph White said the university needs to fulfill its compact when he spoke at the University YMCA’s Know Your University forum Feb. 21.

Of the university’s sources of financial support – state appropriations, tuition and financial aid, sponsored research and private donors – state support is the university’s greatest challenge. However, White said that the UI likely will receive an incremental increase of $10 million in its state-appropriated operating funds for FY07 and that he is “more optimistic” about the university’s resources than he was six months ago.

“With good plans, hard work and a little bit of luck, I think that our future is extraordinarily bright,” White said. “We offer a superb education that still today is at a value price,” giving students a $25,000-a-year education for tuition and fees of approximately $8,000.

Despite tuition increases, student applications increased by 4,000 this year, and while student demand is not a problem, attracting, retaining and supporting faculty members are vital concerns.

White said that the UI’s primary objectives in the near future will be safeguarding academic excellence and reducing the $900 million backlog of deferred maintenance projects at the three campuses.

“We need excellent plans to guide us for the next decade, and we have those now,” White said, referring to the university’s strategic plan, which he recently delivered to the UI Board of Trustees for its review. “We need excellent leadership at every level, and we need resources.”

The university plans to kick off a major fundraising campaign in 2007 and will challenge alumni to donate more than ever before. White discussed his recent meetings with notable alumni such as celebrated film director Ang Lee; Sheila Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television; and Mannie Jackson, the first African-American basketball player at the UI, who played for the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team in the 1960s. Jackson purchased the Globetrotters in 1993 after retiring as an executive from Honeywell Inc., becoming the first African American to own a major international sports organization. White observed that they and other alumni have strong emotional ties to the university and its faculty members, and said that he and Jackson discussed the possibility of Jackson funding scholarships and inspiring other people to attend Illinois.

An audience member expressed concern about the five years of annual 10 percent tuition increases called for in the strategic plan and the impact on affordability. White said that “access to less than excellence is not of much value,” and that the UI’s tuition increases are moderate in comparison to the tuition increases at private universities. “I don’t think we should apologize for asking people to make reasonable sacrifices for education,” White said.

Another audience member questioned plans to increase the population of nonresident students, saying there are “too many nonresidents here already,” and that the UI was “not a state school anymore and no longer a school for Illinoisans.” White responded that 90 percent of UI students are Illinois residents who remain in Illinois, which dissuades some students from attending the UI because they want to experience more diversity. White said that the University of Michigan’s nonresident enrollment is 30 percent, and it is perceived by some people to be a superior institution simply because its alumni are more widely dispersed geographically and “spread the word” about the university to more people. White said he could envision increasing the UI’s population of undergraduate nonresident students to 15 percent.

White said he expects international exchange to “be huge” in the future and that it promotes “learning of the deepest and most lasting kind.” He and his wife, Mary, had exposed their children to other countries and cultures while they were growing up and joked that one of the unintended consequences of that had been that his son had married a woman from England “and now my grandchildren live 4,000 miles away.”

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