CHICAGO—The four Illinois public university systems requested to the Board of Higher Education $1,308.5 million for operations and grants and $242.8 million for capital improvements for fiscal year 1989 budgets.

This request is $201.5 million, or 18.2 percent, more than the appropriations for FY88. It includes increases in areas of salary, general costs, and program and institutional support.

The Board of Regents has asked the IBHE to consider a request of $234.1 million, with NIU receiving the largest appropriation of $117.7 million. This includes salary increases totaling $7.4 million for NIU.

While presenting the Regents’ recommendations to the IBHE, Chancellor Roderick Groves expressed the importance of these requests to the state. He said, “This request is a reflector of our own needs and the needs of the state.”

e said the highest priority of the Regents is salary increases for faculty and staff to meet the “significant erosion in purchasing power” since last decade. He also said faculty and staff salaries of the Regency system “lag seriously behind to comparative systems … and are in the bottom one third of our grouping.

“It is imperative to reverse this trend,” he said.

The Regents requested a 10 percent salary increment. This was a top priority because FY88 appropriations did not provide any funds for salary increases and, with possible inflation, public university faculty would experience further loss in purchasing power, Groves said.

Also high on the priority list was a 13 percent increase request for library materials. Groves said this was an important need to counteract the results of zero funding last year.

The Regents also requested an 8 percent increase for general costs, an 8.1 percent increase in utility costs and a 5 percent increase in fire protection. These increases, along with the increase for library materials, total $3.44 million. NIU’s appropriation of this totals $1.76 million.

For program and institutional support, the Regents asked the IBHE to review a request of $17.99 million. This amount includes an appropriation of $9.19 million for NIU.

Groves expressed the need for these requests to aid in the effort to increase the retention of students while, at the same time, meeting the high enrollment rates. “(With) the circumstances today, (higher education) needs much support from the IBHE,” he said. “Though we have not been the recipient of project support, we are gratified for (IBHE) support.”

Mitchell Vogel, Illinois Federation of Teachers president, said Illinois higher education is facing “unusually troubled times. After the governing systems presented their individual recommendations to the IBHE, Vogel approached the IBHE with reasons for the creation of these troubled times.

e said some of the reasons are a 15 percent cut in education’s share of the state budget, a decrease in faculty salaries and an increase in the cost of higher education. Illinois was ranked among the bottom 10 states in appropriations for higher education.

NIU President John LaTourette said Illinois is ninth in the nation for per capita income, but it is 42nd in terms of supporting higher education.

IBHE member Warren Bacon said no one likes to pay taxes, “but we can sell the needs of higher education if we put our minds to it. We must spend time to look at how to sell these resolutions.

Member Rey Brune said it is more important to let people know which steps Illinois has taken in higher education “and assure them that they are getting their money’s worth.”

The governing systems of Illinois public universities include the Regents, the Board of Governors, Southern Illinois University and University of Illinois.