 The state's chronic habit of paying its bills months late has not
crippled the University of Illinois, thanks to a diverse stream of
revenue from research grants and other sources. School officials say
they have tried to protect academic quality, but they acknowledge
that classes have grown larger, some are offered more rarely, and
fewer specialized courses are available.The state doesn't owe as
much to Illinois' other public universities. But some have had to
cut back on staffing, faculty travel and renovation projects, even
as they have managed to keep current in paying their own bills.
"If we don't have reserves set aside, we're in big trouble," said
Glenn Poshard, president of Southern Illinois University and a
former U.S. congressman. "The state has got to do something to get
its fiscal house in order. Every entity in this state is waiting."
As of early September, the state collectively owed the nine state
universities more than $550 million. The UI was due more than $300
million of that, but the university has been able to cover the gap,
using money from tuition, research grants and other sources.
"There has been a move toward fewer professors over the past few
years, but it happened over a gradual period of time," said Doug
Beckmann, the UI's senior associate vice president for business and
finance. "We've done everything we can to protect the academic
enterprise."
UI spokeswoman Robin Kaler said 133 faculty members left as a
result of a voluntary retirement program offered in early 2010. The
UI recently approved filling that many positions -- but in specific
critical-needs areas.
Kaler said the cash crunch put further pressure on class sizes.
"There are fewer classes with fewer than 20 students, and more
classes with more than 50 students in them," she said.
Some classes normally offered twice a year are now offered once a
year. And fewer specialized courses are available because faculty
must offer more critical required courses first, she said.
Meanwhile, tuition has been marching upward. At the Urbana
campus, entry-level tuition and fees for a full-time resident taking
30 credit hours totaled $14,414 this year, up nearly 45 percent from
five years earlier.
Tuition and fee increases at nearly all Illinois public
universities topped 40 percent over that five-year period,
statistics from the Illinois Board of Higher Education show. At
Governors State University, the increase was 63 percent.
For fiscal 2012, the state appropriated $1.294 billion for
operations and grants at public universities. That is $336.1 million
-- or 20.6 percent -- less than universities got from the state in
1997, adjusted for inflation, according to a report released in
August by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
As of Sept. 8, payments due UI from the state totaled $305.98
million, according to a database of unpaid bills from the state
comptroller's office. About $288.5 million of that was owed to the
Urbana campus. Many of the overdue payments were OK'd six months
ago, with some approved as long ago as December 2010.
Beckmann said that by mid-September, the UI was owed about $313
million for the fiscal year that ended June 30 and about $70 million
for the current fiscal year.
Other state universities also have weathered late payments but
found ways to operate despite them:
Southern Illinois University was owed $80.8 million as of
Sept. 8, according to the database. By the end of September, the
backlog of unpaid state bills had reached nearly $95.9 million,
Poshard said.
That included $74.6 million for the Carbondale campus and $21.2
million for the Edwardsville campus.
To prepare for lean times, SIU froze hiring of faculty and staff,
except for critical positions, and didn't fill jobs when they opened
up. Poshard said 280 positions at Carbondale remain open, while 75
to 80 positions at Edwardsville are vacant.
Class sizes haven't increased, though, because enrollment at the
Carbondale campus has declined, he said.
SIU delayed or canceled renovation projects, scratched some
travel and special events, and speeded up collection of accounts
receivable, he said.
"We also set aside a 4 percent reserve to guard against the
possibility that the state might (cut) the funds they owe us,"
Poshard said.
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 Northern Illinois University, in DeKalb, was owed
$45.6 million as of Sept. 8, according to the comptroller's
database.
As a result of the late payments, Northern is filling fewer
positions when people retire and is reviewing faculty travel more
carefully, university spokesman Brad Hoey said.
Northern has also talked with vendors, including utilities, about
adjusting payment schedules, he said. But the university hasn't
expanded class sizes.
Western Illinois University, in Macomb, was owed $25.5
million by the state, according to the comptroller's database. But
two late-September payments totaling $12.2 million reduced the
amount owed.
President Jack Thomas said Western's cash balance allows it to
meet payroll through December, but "we need to remain fiscally
conservative" due to reimbursement delays for the fiscal year that
ended in June.
Earlier this year, Western held about 60 positions open -- 20 of
them faculty positions -- and merged units to save money.
At Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston,
administrators relied on internal borrowing and expense-cutting to
get through the cash crunch, said William Weber, Eastern's vice
president of business affairs.
Equipment purchases have been delayed, and travel reimbursements
now require approval from the vice president, Weber said. Tuition
has been increased, and the number of employees has been reduced,
mostly by attrition.
Eastern was due $20.9 million from the state as of Sept. 8,
according to the comptroller's database.
Weber said Eastern can't continue to deal with late payments this
way.
"It's certainly not sustainable," he said. "It's manageable
short-term, but it's not manageable long-term."
Illinois State University, in Normal, which was owed $37.4
million according to the database, has instituted a non-faculty
hiring freeze and delayed large equipment purchases.
"We essentially manage our cash-flow needs through tuition
revenues and reserves since we are unable to predict when state
payments will come through," said spokesman Jay Groves.
Meanwhile, the UI's biggest saving grace has been the flow of
research money, because the university is allowed to use part of it
to cover overhead, Beckmann said.
"The smaller schools are more dependent on their (state)
appropriation, and in the past, the comptroller's office has made
that recognition and paid them before us," Beckmann said.
At the same time, the state has made major appropriations for
capital projects at the UI, Beckmann said. Those include the release
of $57 million for the renovation of Lincoln Hall, $60 million for a
computing facility and $14 million for the UI College of Medicine in
Rockford.
Beckmann said the university is "not devoid of state support."
But, he said, "The big question is, what is the ultimate solution to
this? We don't know the answer to that."
___
To explore a searchable database of the Illinois government's
unpaid bills from Sept. 8, go to
http://billpay.qconline.com/.
___
Information from: The News-Gazette,
http://www.news-gazette.com/
[Associated Press;
By DON DODSON]
John Sharp of the (Peoria) Journal Star and Mark
Pickering of The (Bloomington) Pantagraph contributed to this story.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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