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education, public and private. At the same time, the loan debt that is faced by increasing numbers
of Illinois students and their families since the early 1990s, as well as the growing affordability
gap that was recently pointed out in a study by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, raised
questions about the ability to continue to provide all Illinois students with both access to and
choice among a variety of higher education opportunities.
“The updated information that has been presented in this item confirms the need to
critically examine the emerging and ongoing affordability-related policy issues and concerns. At
the same time, the work of the Board’s prior study committee on affordability in 1994 and the
more recent work of the committee on access and diversity, as well as this year’s budget,
demonstrate that this issue goes well beyond the topics of tuition and financial aid to encompass
issues of access, choice, student success, cost, and also the ultimate question of how Illinois
finances the cost of providing a quality higher education for all residents.
“A potential organizing framework for addressing affordability could then have three
components. First, looking at the impact of student demands for access, choice, and their
ultimate success in higher education – that is, persistence and completion; second, the cost of
delivering higher education and the price charged; and finally, institutional decisions in response
to both their internal priorities as well as external demands on the institutions. Staff have
highlighted some of the initial policy issues and related research questions for each of these three
issues in Figure 5 on Page 83.
“Staff recommends going forward with a study that focuses on all aspects of the
affordability issue and one that also takes into consideration and builds on current Board policies
related to affordability in addressing these issues. At the same time, it must be recognized that
the relative influence of the state, institutions, and students and their families to effect change
with regard to these policy issues varies greatly among the issues. Thus, the ultimate goal of the
study should be to clearly identify those areas and actions that can be taken by the state,
institutions, and students and their families to enhance the affordability of Illinois higher
education. The past practice of the Board in addressing issues of this magnitude has been to
establish a committee to guide the study. Staff recommends establishing a committee on
affordability comprised of members of both the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the
Illinois Student Assistance Commission. In light of the complexity of the underlying issues and
the ultimate impact that these recommendations may have, the work of the committee should also
have the full involvement of the Board’s advisory committees as well as the higher education
community at large throughout the study. It is clear that this study will need to take place over an
extended period of time, given the complexity and depth of the issues. It is also likely that there
will be recommendations that will require both budgetary and statutory actions to implement. As
such, the staff recommends that the study take place over the next several months and completes
in October 2003 in time for whatever recommendations that come out of this study to be included
as part of the deliberations for the fiscal year 2005 budget. The staff recommends adoption of the
resolution on Page 84.”
Chairman Lesnik said: “I want to underscore the staff recommendation. As Dan
indicated, it has been the custom of this Board to generally act as a committee of the whole on
work that staff does, and only in a few cases has a committee of this Board been formed to deal
with an issue. Generally speaking, that denotes the sense of priority that the staff and the Board
attach to the subject. So I hope Board Members will agree that this is one of those circumstances
in which we should form a full-fledged committee and have them work on this project over the
course of the next year. Staff has also recommended, I think quite imaginatively, that the
committee be co-chaired by a member of our Board and by a member of the Illinois Student
