HE.06.07
February 20, 2006
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign Senate
Final;Information
HE.06.07 Report on the IBHE Faculty Advisory Council Meeting, January 20, 2006.
The FAC met at Bradley University. President David Broski (former UIC Chancellor) welcomed the group. Bradley, founded in 1897 by Lydia Moss Bradley--an influential American civic leader, enrolls 5K undergraduates and 1K graduate students. (It has one Ph.D. program.) It has five colleges: Education and Health Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Business Administration, Liberal Arts and Sciences and Communication and Fine Arts. Enrollment is stable with the quality index and the diversity of the student body rising. Tuition and fees are $18,830 this year with 85% of the students receiving financial aid averaging over $12K.
Bradley has a $2M endowment and is in the quiet phase of a new $2M campaign. The last endowment campaign stressed the need for unrestricted funds; this campaign will focus on buildings and facilities. Bradley works closely with the community and local companies in economic development as well as urban renewal efforts and is part of group funding a $12M business incubator building in downtown Peoria. It also is increasing its ties to the UIC-Peoria medical school.
The meeting was largely developed to a discussion of the organization and structure of the FAC and its role vis-à-vis member schools, the professoriate in Illinois and the Board of Higher Education. The twelve 4-year public institutions are always represented on the FAC with members from 12 private and 12 community colleges rotating among schools in the state.
An effort to develop a statement on conditions in Illinois higher education stressing sharply negative statements directed at the Governor and legislature contrasted with one directed to the general public with stress on the importance of higher education to the state and describing the impact of the last several years of negative budgets. Revisions to the statement continue with a goal of voting on the statement at the February meeting in Chicago.
Ken Andersen
UIUC Senate FAC Representative