The Board of Trustees met Thursday in Chicago to hear reports and vote on a number of topics, most prominently the proposal to restructure University administration — a measure authored by President Michael Hogan that, according to him, would clear up administrative chain of command.

Administrative restructuring

The vice-presidents behind Hogan increased from three to seven as the University board voted in favor of restructuring the administration by creating a vice president for Health Affairs and altering the titles of several administrators.

The restructuring will add “vice president” to the three campus chancellors’ titles. The vice president for Technology and Economic Development will become vice president for Research.

Board Chairman Chris Kennedy said the change to the chancellor’s titles will protect the campuses from “an overreaching board” with its clarification in chain of command.

“The University has suffered from an overreaching board and a weakened presidency in the past,” Kennedy said. “That is the driving force behind the issue.”

Chair of the hospital committee, Trustee Tim Koritz said his committee was in favor of creating a vice president for Health Affairs as a unified health affairs voice, especially given the amount of the budget that is devoted to the area.

Prior to arriving at the board’s agenda, the restructuring plan went through a consultation process with the campus senates and the University Senates Conference, which comprises elected officials from each of the campus senates.

Hogan said he meet with the senates and senates conference around 30 to 40 times since he took office, and said their input was a significant part of the decision process.

University spokesman Tom Hardy said the next step in the process is to assess the positions and prepare for the searches to fill several positions.

Hardy said the salaries of positions that are filled will remain unchanged but the new positions will depend on the market and the individual.

“When you have a search, you’re hiring new permanent people for these positions,” he said. “The salaries will be, as always, dependent on who they are, what their experience is, what the market is for those positions.”

Crime on campus

With the recent increase in crime on the Urbana campus, a portion of the meeting was devoted to a presentation by University Police Chief Barbara O’Connor and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Renee Romano on crime and safety.

O’Connor said there has clearly been an increase in crime beginning last spring and that the assaults that have been occurring on the Urbana campus are “just random violent assaults with no rhyme or reason, no motive other than the violence itself.”

O’Connor and Romano explained several of the steps the University has taken in crime prevention, specifically in the residence halls to build a “community watch approach.”

Romano said student patrols have been increased during the days in the dorms along with the installation of locks on all bathrooms and the hiring of a security firm to staff the main entrances. She said the security firm will be in place on Nov. 28.

Urbana student trustee Daniel Soso said the University Police are doing a “fantastic job,” but emphasized to the rest of the board and O’Connor the importance of looking at the issue honestly. Soso challenged O’Connor’s assertion that it is a misperception that Champaign-Urbana is much less safe than other peer institutions.

“I think that they are nervous to say it out loud because then it makes it reality and it makes it something that will hurt our recruitment,” Soso said. “But I feel like this is the type of issue that you can’t just close your eyes and pretend its not happening. If you do, then it will just get worse.”

The University Budget

The board heard from University Chief Financial Officer Walter Knorr who addressed the University’s budget to “set the stage” for an eventual decision on tuition.

Following Knorr’s presentation, Hogan addressed the importance of remembering faculty wages when discussing the budget.

“When we talk about all of this, it’s going to be very important to remember that our faculty and staff have not had compensation increases,” he said. “We just can’t do that any more. It’s demoralizing.”

Hogan added that all three campuses have begun to lose faculty members to other institutions that can afford higher wages.