Eastern Illinois??

[PurpleStreamers]

Sorry if there's another thread on this, but can one if the EIU folks tell us what the heck's going on out there?

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/ea...-spring/106375

[Sycamore62]

attendance is down but this is more of the state paying bills because they havent passed a budget. they laid off some people already.

[eiu1999]

They've laid off a lot already and will continue too. The state budget hijacking is hurting everyone, the local school districts are a mess as well.

[ST_Lawson]

Yea, it's something that most of the Illinois public universities are dealing with.
http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease....lease_id=12990

Lots of rumors flying around and stuff. Declining enrollment at many schools (mostly the directionals...Eastern, Southern, Western, Northern) is a problem, but as Sycamore62 said, the state is going on 5 months now operating without a budget (as in...almost nobody is getting money from the state). I can't speak for the other universities, but at Western, we've been assured that the university does have enough money to continue to operate until the end of the fiscal year (end of June 2016). There was some question about MAP grants not being funded in the Spring, but if the state doesn't come through, then Western will be covering that (the alternative would be to not fund MAP grants and essentially lose probably 1/3 of our students in the spring).

The budget stalemate is a fight between the Democratic-led IL House and Senate and the recently elected Republican Governor and nobody wants to give in...and we're just kinda caught in the middle.

I don't know what the resolution will end up being, but it sounds likely that they'll get something figured out in January, but we may not see any of the money until summer, and even then, it will likely be a significant budget cut. We haven't had to lay off as many people as Eastern has, but we have had a few, done some strategic restructuring, eliminated a few programs that weren't very well populated, etc.

It's a pretty scary situation for us who work at state institutions.

[PurpleStreamers]

Thanks for the info everyone and that really sucks for all the Illinois schools. I actually work at a public institution in the UNC system and we're headed that direction as well. Being an at-will state unlike Illinois and previously Wisconsin though, I could definitely see the hammer dropping even faster down here with our new Board of Governors and Margaret Spellings coming on as President of the System. Not going to be fun for anyone outside of the mothership and golden child in Chapel Hill.

[OSBF]

Sort of diabolical what they did to 3 folks here in our office. Our office set-up is a mix of federal and state govt. Back in june the state folks were told that their positions had been eliminated, and their services were no longer needed. OK, they thought, no biggie I'm eligible to retire, I'll just do that. Tried to file for retirement, were told they weren't eligible because you had to A) file at least 90 days prior to receiving benefits and B) be employed with the agency at time of "separation"

Their retirement pension effectively disappeared.

Heading to court soon

[Bisonator]

How many colleges are there in Illinois anyway? Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Illinois, Illinois State............

[OSBF]

How many colleges are there in Illinois anyway? Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Illinois, Illinois State............

SIU Edwardsville, Illannoy-Springfield, Chicago State, Illannoy-Chicago

[OSBF]

Governor's State University and Northeastern Illinois University

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Comprehensive list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...es_in_Illinois

[Sycamore62]

Good gawd is there any other ****ing jobs in Illinois not tied to the education system?

law enforcement

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How many colleges are there in Illinois anyway? Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Illinois, Illinois State............

how many Dakotas are there? North, South, Canada..............