SPRINGFIELD – In his first appearance before a legislative committee, University of Illinois President Michael Hogan was questioned about tuition waivers, costly board of trustee meetings, faculty pay and his own compensation package.

Hogan and two other top UI administrators, Chief Financial Officer Walter Knorr and Associate Vice President Randy Kangas, were grilled for more than an hour Wednesday evening by members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"I think it was a friendly hearing. I thought the questions were good, right on target," Hogan told reporters. "These guys are wrestling with very challenging issues, and so I expect tough questions. I can't always answer them because I'm relatively new."

Hogan became president of the UI last July, after serving in the same position at the University of Connecticut.

A decision on the UI's budget for the year beginning July 1 isn't expected until later this spring, when overall state spending and revenue projections are more firm. But Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed budget for the UI calls for no change in the university's $697 million general fund appropriation.

"Believe me, I know that in these very, very challenging budget times, no change is relatively good news," Hogan told the senators. "I want to thank the governor for the high priority he has put on higher education and the University of Illinois in particular."

Hogan noted, however, that the UI's level of state support is $130 million less than in fiscal year 2002.

"And in fact, when adjusted for inflation, it's below the 1970 level," he said.

The most dramatic part of the appropriations hearing was when Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, questioned Hogan on the compensation package he received when he was hired, including a $620,000 salary, the president's home in Urbana, a condo in Chicago and a car and driver.

"I don't mean to hurt your feelings," Lauzen said, "but how can you possibly speak credibly about shared sacrifice with that background?"

Hogan told Lauzen he wasn't offended by the question, that he hears it a lot.

"I operate in the market, and in my market that's sort of the going price for a university president of a top 10 public university in the United States," he said. "There are at least two other Big Ten presidents, if not three, who are doing more. If you look at all the AAU universities in the United States – major, major, big, complicated public universities – I'm number 77 out of 113. My compensation is pretty much in the middle."

Hogan told the committee that he "will actually lose money" coming from Connecticut to Illinois. "I didn't come here for a pay hike. I came here because it was a challenging job at a challenging time and I wanted to make a difference," he said.

In his first teaching job, he said, he made $15,000 a year.

"I have four kids, a wife and we don't have a large bank account," he said. "It's not that I've ever gotten rich off of being an academic person. So that's my answer, and I'm not going to apologize for it."

Lauzen persisted, "You don't consider this a high compensation?"

"I consider it fair market," Hogan responded.

Most of the rest of the hearing was less controversial. The highlights:

– UI employees deserve a pay increase, Hogan said.

"Our faculty hasn't had a pay increase in two or three years, and world-class faculty, even in hard times, we know that they are movable. In fact we are losing some. And when they go, they can take millions of dollars with them in research grants and tuition-paying graduate students. It's penny-wise and pound-foolish to lose some of your very best faculty because you're not paying them, you're not increasing their compensation."

Outside the hearing, Hogan said he also hoped to raise the pay for UI staff, too. He suggested it wouldn't be more than 2.5 percent or 3 percent.

"I'd like it to be more than just a gesture," he said.

– The UI spent $160,000 on eight board of trustees meetings last year, said Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine. "First of all, is that accurate, and second, why does a board meeting cost $20,000?"

The costs includes transportation, meals and lodging, Kangas explained.

"I've served on boards where I didn't get paid, and we didn't spend $20,000 per meeting," Murphy responded.

– The UI will spend $10 million to $12 million less next year on utilities than this year, Knorr said, mainly through conservation and by "forward purchasing" natural gas. Murphy called that "fantastic."

– Hogan said he is "relatively optimistic" that the Police Training Institute can remain at the university. Negotiations are continuing, he said, to close a $900,000 a year budget gap.

– The president said he was opposed to cutting tuition waivers given to graduate students.

"I would be reluctant to eliminate tuition waivers for graduate students or we'll end up having to replace them with higher-priced instructors. And so the overall cost to the university would actually go up, not down," Hogan said. "They're a bargain even with the tuition waiver, compared to what it would cost us to hire a faculty member."

– Even with the state budget cuts, Knorr admitted, the UI's overall spending has increased in nine of the last 10 years, mainly because of tuition increases. The current fiscal year is the first one in the UI's history in which tuition revenue ($803 million) is greater than state general funds revenue ($697 million).

The combination of the two revenue sources has grown 43 percent in the last 10 years, Murphy said, while the consumer price index has increased 27 percent.

But Knorr noted that the university's total enrollment has increased by about 10,000 in that period.