Below is a message from UIC's new Chancellor to
all UIC students, faculty, and staff. The message provides information
regarding the current status of UIC's budget and offers an invitation
to an open forum being held Thursday, January 29, from 1:30-2:30 pm in
the Illinois Rooms of Student Center East. Please consider attending
this forum and making your voice heard.
January 20, 2009
Dear Members of the UIC Community,
In
early December, Interim Chancellor Gislason and Provost Tanner
communicated to you the current state of knowledge regarding the State
budget situation. Last week, President White and
Vice President/Chief Financial Officer Walter Knorr presented a report
to the Board of Trustees about the University's financial situation. While
we still have no official guidance from State government, the president
has asked all three campuses, plus the central administration, to
prepare for a potential State budget rescission of up to 10 percent
during this fiscal year.
The
deans and vice chancellors had already been advised of this prospect,
and were asked to develop contingency plans to prepare for it. In addition, the deans and vice chancellors were asked to:
--Limit hiring only to those positions where the vacancy would have significant, adverse impact on campus operations.
--Delay all non-essential expenditures, paying special attention to travel and entertainment.
--Increase their financial oversight to avoid any unplanned deficit spending.
The
measures outlined above and the contingency plans under development
will enable us to mitigate the impact on our academic programs and
services.
All measures and contingency plans are being tested against certain core values and guiding principles. They are:
--Protect academic quality.
--Preserve student access.
--Limit adverse impacts on employees.
--Ensure that clinical patients continue to get the quality of care they need.
--Manage sacrifices fairly and wisely.
These values and principles will help guide us through the difficult decisions we must make over the coming weeks and months. I know that the deans and vice chancellors have already been grappling with these issues.
In an attempt to ensure that everyone in the campus community is adequately informed, we are scheduling an open campus forum. The open forum will be held in the Illinois Room of the Student Center East from 1:30pm to 2:30pm on January 29. Provost
Tanner and I, and other representatives of the campus and University
administration, will discuss the current state of the budget and plans
for meeting our budgetary challenges. Members of the campus community will have an opportunity to voice questions, comments and concerns. To
facilitate broad participation, shuttle buses will run directly from
Student Center West to Student Center East from 12:30-1:30pm and back
again from 2:30-3:30pm.
I am confident that we will make it through these tough times. I
want to thank you for all you contribute to making UIC the great
institution that it is, and I look forward to an open and effective
dialogue with all of you.
Sincerely,
Paula Allen-Meares
Chancellor
