DeKALB — The Board of Trustees approved a budget request of approximately $93.6 million for fiscal year 2021 during its Sept. 12 meeting.

The university requested the same amount for the current fiscal year but received $87.8 million, reflecting a state funding shortfall of 6.2%.

For the past six years, the university has seen a shortfall of $84.7 million when compared to a flat-funding scenario at the fiscal year 2015 level of support, $91.1 million, according to the Sept. 12 Board of Trustees agenda.

$91.1 million of the requested amount for FY 2021 would go toward operations and base funding, and the remaining $2.5 million would cover academic program priorities in a number of areas, the agenda says.

The university is requesting $764,200 for data sciences, $554,900 for nursing, $613,800 for health information management and $603,000 for expanding offerings of industrial and systems engineering and mechanical engineering programs. These amounts are identical to the ones listed in the FY20 budget request.

The funding requested for health information management is meant for creating a Health Information Management degree that crosses the learning areas of information science, computer science and health care, according to the agenda.

The Finance, Audit, Compliance, Facilities and Operations Committee recommended the Board of Trustees approve the budget request. The vote was 7-0, with one abstention from Trustee Veronica Herrero.

The FY 2021 budget request will be sent to the Illinois Board of Higher Education to consider for their budget recommendations in December.