Daily Egyptian TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
VOL. 100 ISSUE 64
SINCE 1916
Crossing campus
Illinois Policy Institute: SIU to blame for budget woes BILL LUKITSCH | @Bill_LukitschDE
A report by the Illinois Policy Institute largely attributes the higher education funding crisis in Illinois to “self-inflicted wounds” caused by increases in administrative staff salaries and positions. “Inflating university administration staff to such high levels and awarding such generous faculty and administrator salaries has raised tuitions to unaffordable rates and drained away state money, which should be going into the classroom,” Ted Dabrowski, vice president of policy for the organization, said in a press release. The organization reported more than half the $4.1 billion appropriated for higher education in 2015 went to fund university retiree pensions. Operational costs accounted for 80 percent of spending in 2006, an analysis by the organization showed. Dabrowski added that the hiring practices have forced college students to take on “crippling debt” in pursuit of education and the budget woes indicate the failure of Illinois universities to put students first. In a phone interview Monday, Dabrowski listed a number of administrators at SIU who have received large salary increases, saying Illinois taxpayers cannot afford to carry the weight of inflated pensions. SIU President Randy Dunn told WSIL TV last week the allegations of “bloated” administration salaries and hiring sprees at SIU contradict the facts. Illinois Policy Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, according to its website, but records from the Illinois State Board of Elections show the think tank gave direct contributions to the Illinois Republican Party in 2008. It also has ties to the billionaire Koch brothers. “What’s important to know is SIU has done its share in saving the state money as we have had historically about the average lowest number of administrators of all public universities,” Dunn said in an email to WSIL. He said the state has decreased operational funding for the SIUC from $130 million in 2002 to $104 million in 2015. Illinois has the largest pension shortfall in the nation. But the university is not responsible for decisions made by Republican and Democratic lawmakers concerning the state-funded retirement program, Dunn said. Please see ADMIN | 2
Aidan Osborne | @AidanOsborne_DE Dalton Sharrow, a sophomore from Carrollton studying zoology with a specialization in wildlife biology, carries a wooden cross on Monday across campus. Each day this week, members of the IMPACT Christian student group will carry the cross on their backs while walking the perimeter of campus. Brandon McNeely, a junior from Gower, Mo., studying sports administration and the director of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, said the name was chosen because the group wants to have an impact on the campus and in students’ lives. “We are doing this to get people thinking about what Easter means to them,” Sharrow said. “What the cross means.” The group meets at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry located at 825 West Mill Street.
Dunn: Proposed cuts would be like ‘lopping off chunks of the body’ LUKE NOZICKA | @LukeNozicka
SIU President Randy Dunn said during an interview on WJPF radio that the university, particularly the Carbondale campus, is six to nine months away from being in a financial situation similar to Eastern Illinois University, which has laid off employees as a result of the state’s budget impasse. “For those who are the disbelievers or the skeptics — if we don’t get cash pushed to us eventually from the state level, just sit and watch long enough and you’ll see how serious this has become,” Dunn said Thursday during an interview with Tom Miller on WJPF, a radio station broadcasted in Carbondale and Marion. “We may not see a budget for FY16, but there needs to be a spending plan that includes public universities.” For more than eight months, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic Legislature have been to negotiate a state budget, leaving universities and colleges without funding since July 1. Illinois’ longest budget impasse to date has left its higher education institutions in a dire situation. Dunn said on WJPF that the $3.8 billion spending bill Senate Democrats approved on
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Randy Dunn
Thursday seems to be the only way “we’re going to see any state money here in fiscal year ‘16, it’s going to be off of this bill.” Republicans called the bill a “cruel hoax,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
Earlier this month, Dunn said the Carbondale campus will eliminate 180 faculty and staff and cut programs and services by nearly $23 million if Rauner’s fiscal year 2017 budget passes. More than 400 classes and 300 student employment positions would be eliminated. The men’s and women’s tennis teams would be removed. The public has been “generally protected” from seeing reductions, such as “not hiring professors” or “letting the buildings lag in terms of maintenance,” Dunn told Miller. But if Rauner’s budget passes, cuts may become much more visible. “If we’re at the point where we have to move into this level of cuts that we announced last week, it is like — you know — lopping off chunks of the body, lopping off sections of SIU,” Dunn said on WJPF. “That creates a whipsaw effect. It’s a shock to the system that creates all kinds of disruption, whether you’re talking about students in degree programs or those thinking about coming to SIU or folks who are employed doing certain duties, tasks and responsibilities that are no longer there and they’re out of a job.” Luke Nozicka can be reached at 618-536-3325 or at lnozicka@dailyegyptian.com.