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August 2, 2004
BOARD TO REVIEW BUDGET OUTLOOK
SPRINGFIELD - A budget preview that appears cautiously brighter
heads a busy agenda for the Illinois Board of Higher Education next
week.
The Board will meet Tuesday, August 10, at Western Illinois University
in Macomb.
Headlining the Board's agenda will be a review of the fiscal 2005
budget enacted recently by the General Assembly, and a companion
piece that offers some mild encouragement for the upcoming fiscal
year. Lawmakers approved FY05 appropriations that, excluding pension
dollars, total $2.1 billion, just $3 million below the spending
level for fiscal 2004.
The budget context report for FY06 points out that colleges and
universities have endured significant reductions in state resources
- $246 million, or 9.2 percent - since FY2002. During that period,
FY02-FY04, public universities reduced administrative costs by an
average of 18.4 percent, totaling $74 million.
The report further notes that "there is some indication that
the state's fiscal health may finally be stabilizing with progress
toward economic recovery underway." It includes, however, a
note of caution from the Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission
which states that "State government will have to continue to
make difficult choices for the foreseeable future."
Board members also will hear an update of an ongoing study of textbook
costs.
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich asked the Board in April to look into
the matter of textbook prices. The study remains a work in progress,
and Board members are not expected to take action on the issue in
August.
Items for discussion on August 10 include the causes of high prices
of textbooks, the lack of options for students and professors, and
innovative ways that colleges and universities are dealing with
the issue. There is a successful textbook rental program at Eastern
Illinois University, and the Illinois Central College buys books
from a single publisher and is therefore able to negotiate prices
and tailor editions of certain texts. Online sites, student book
swaps, and a textbook buying club are all possibilities to be explored
in the future as a strategy for making college more affordable for
all students.
The Board will receive a report and recommendations for revisions
to its strategic plan, known as The Illinois Commitment. The "mid-term
review" of the plan suggests adopting The Illinois Commitment
as an explicit statement of policy to guide state and campus priorities
in the future. The strategic plan was adopted by the Board in February
1999.
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