Statement by James Stukel
President, University of Illinois
RE: The FY 02 State Budget

Gov. George Ryan, the legislative leadership and the Illinois General Assembly deserve our thanks for continuing to support higher education and the University of Illinois by providing a healthy budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The governor and legislators always face the challenge of having to choose from among many great ideas to be funded. This year's economy made the challenges even more difficult, especially since expectations did not diminish.

So we are extremely pleased the strong University budget will allow us to continue the progress of the last few years. It provides money for the multiple missions the state expects the University to pursue, such as undergraduate education, research and development, and the commercialization of technology and other goals.

We are delighted the Urbana-Champaign campus will be able to move forward with the construction of the Post-Genomics Institute, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications building, and the Siebel Center for Computer Science. The Chicago campus will have its new Chemical Technologies Laboratory and the Springfield campus will be getting a much-needed classroom-office building.

With this strong support the University will be able to continue the improvements in programs and offerings that benefit the students at all three campuses, and to address our need to be competitive in salaries for faculty and staff. All, of course, are wise investments for the people of Illinois.

-UI-