UI officials talk pensions, budget at campus town hall meeting - Tyler Davis, Daily Illini

At Wednesday’s campus town hall meeting, Chancellor Phyllis Wise and Provost Ilesanmi Adesida addressed the “two elephants in the room” prior to discussing the state of the campus — state pension plans and the overall budget climate of the campus. As some of the changes from last fall’s pension reform legislation, SB-1, will go into effect as early as this year, Wise said she had a message for those affected: “From the Board of Trustees, to the president, to the provost and myself to all of the campus leadership, we are putting in a huge amount of time to try to figure out ways to mitigate and alleviate the impact of this (reform).” Adesida added that legislators have made clear the dire consequences of a possible 12.5 percent budget cut that has been discussed — a budget cut that would reduce University funding by nearly $83 million. http://www.dailyillini.com/news/article_8eea8af8-c04e-11e3-ba3b-0017a43b2370.html