Daily Egyptian THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016
State schools face more cuts with proposed 2017 budget
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Salukis take to the capitol
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Students come together to join fight for funding ANNA SPOERRE | @AnnaSpoerre
BILL LUKITSCH | @Bill_LukischDE
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner introduced his proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 to state legislators Wednesday, calling for a 20 percent spending reduction to Illinois’ public universities. SIU would lose a total of $100 million in state aid under the governor’s proposal for next year and the current fiscal year. Public universities and community colleges in the state have received no state funding in almost nine months since the gridlock in Springfield began. “I don’t think we can come out of today and sit quietly,” SIU President Randy Dunn said in response to the governor’s budget message. Dunn added that he and other university presidents need to “take the bull by the horns” and advance a better bill for higher education with state legislators. The most recent state appropriation paid nearly $200 million in operational costs across the three SIU campuses. Rauner’s proposed budget would allocate about $160 million next year and an estimated expenditure of $140 million during the current fiscal year. “I think [Rauner’s proposal] has very serious implications for the university,” said John Charles, the university’s executive director of governmental affairs. The university will remain open, but the loss in funding the governor has proposed would drastically change “how the university looks,” Charles said. He could not detail what that meant, exactly. “We’ve got to come back and digest this information and get a bigger picture of how this impacts the entire university,” Charles said. State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, said the governor has been, by and large, unwilling to negotiate with Democrats in the legislature, which has major negative effects on his constituents. “[Rauner] has shut down the Sparta shooting range, cut off funding to Southern Illinois University, and as of recent, permanently closed the Southern Illinois Art and Artisans Center at Rend Lake; yet again costing people jobs,” Forby said.
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obtainable for people who can’t afford it.” Many users said they want their younger siblings to have access to an education — a hope they believe may not manifest with a spending bill. Others stressed the importance of higher education for this generation and the country’s future. State universities and colleges have not received state money since July 1 because Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic Legislature have not been able to agree to a state budget.
Students from across the state rallied at the State Capitol on Wednesday morning during Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget address, protesting the current and longest budget impasse in Illinois’ history. Hundreds of community members from Chicago State University, Eastern Illinois University and the University of Illinois poured out of buses into the cold, signs in hand. While Rauner delivered his speech — in which he failed to mention higher education — the crowd moved from the front steps of the capitol to the rotundas inside, chanting, “Fund our schools,” and “When we are united, we will not close.” Four students and two faculty from SIU were present. One of those students was Grace Vargas, a freshman from Chicago studying anthropology, who knelt on the steps of the capitol, writing on a colorful piece of paper with the hashtag #INeedABudgetBecause. “The only way I can see our economy getting better ... is if people are going to school, getting an education, having those opportunities and having that social mobility,” she said. For more than eight months, Rauner and the Democratic Legislature have been unable to negotiate on a state budget, leaving universities and colleges without funding since July 1. The deadlock has left the state’s higher education institutions in a dire situation. On Feb. 4, Chicago State University declared a financial crisis, allowing the institution on Chicago’s South Side to layoff faculty. More than 170 service workers were laid off this week at Eastern Illinois, where the mood is bleak, said David Gracon, a communication studies professor there. “It’s sort of difficult to teach in that environment because there’s so much uncertainty as to whether or not the school will be open in the future,” he said. SIU President Randy Dunn said he was very disappointed the governor did not mention higher education or Monetary Award Program grants, which are provided to low-income students, during his address.
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Anna Spoerre | @AnnaSpoerre SIU students and faculty (right to left) Tyler Yates, a freshman in zoology; Stephanie Dukat, a masters student in ceramics; Holly Hurlburt, a history professor; and Andrea Storey, a freshman in Spanish, wave signs and blow noisemakers Wednesday in front of the Illinois Capitol during a budget impasse protest.
Left: SIU students (right to left) Tyler Yates, a freshman in zoology; Grace Vargas, a freshman in anthropology and Andrea Storey, a freshman in Spanish, were among the students chanting “save our schools” Wednesday at the State Capitol during Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget address. Anna Spoerre @AnnaSpoerre
Fed-up students demand action from lawmakers CORY RAY | @CoryRay_DE
Students are taking to social media to press state legislators into passing a budget during what has become the longest period Illinois has gone without one. On Monday, SIU students started the “I Need a Budget Because” campaign, a rallying call where students show why they believe lawmakers need to pass a budget. On its Facebook page, which has garnered more than 700 likes, students post pictures with signs that read, “I Need a Budget
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Because...” and fill in the rest with personal testimonies. Students have also started a hashtag with the phrase. “I need a budget because I believe everyone should have access to an affordable higher education,” said Claire Dawson, a freshman from Versailles, Ky., majoring in international studies. “Without a budget, we’re losing MAP grants, scholarships and programs are being cut. Education that is already hard to obtain — that is already expensive — is becoming more expensive and less