University chiefs look past state funding

[April 20, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD -- Three of Illinois' university presidents have not yet given up hope of getting their money from Springfield. But the school chiefs say they know they can't continue to wait around.

Presidents from the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University and Eastern Illinois University were at the Illinois Capitol on Wednesday to once again talk about their need for state funding.

The three schools are owed millions, and the payments have been delayed for months.

U of I Interim President Stanley Ikenberry said the lack of money, and the uncertainty of when more money may arrive, has forced him to tap into every available dollar.

"It's been raining all year and the reserves are exhausted," he said. "Basically it's been tuition money from students and parents that's allowed us to meet our payroll for the next several months."

Ikenberry had predicted a 20 percent tuition increase because of the university's budget problems. He now expects that tuition increase for new students next fall to be closer to 9 percent.

Eastern Illinois University President Bill Perry is also backing away from an earlier prediction of a higher tuition hike, though he said the cost of a semester of classes will go up for incoming freshman.

"Next year our tuition increase is going to be less than in the past," he said. "That's just part of a recognition of the times that we're in, the income profiles of our students' families and so on. We need to find other sources of revenue."

Perry isn't saying what that other source of revenue might be, but he thinks schools across the state need to be realistic about just how long it might be before Illinois is able to pay all of its bills again.

"I think as universities we need to realize that we cannot depend all the time on state funding," he said.

Al Goldfarb, president at Western Illinois University in Macomb, said he doesn't see a quick end or a quick replacement for the missing millions from the state.

Goldfarb joined Gov. Pat Quinn at a ribbon-cutting for a new WIU campus in the Quad Cities earlier this month, but the school is still waiting for a check for the main campus.

"My hope is that we get those payments as soon as possible," he said. "But we also know we're going to be reduced next year, if what the governor recommends is what passes. ... For Western (Illinois University) that's about a 6.8 percent reduction. So our concern is both about that reduction and having the same kind of cash-flow problem next year."

Quinn has proposed $1.3 billion in cuts to education from grade school through grad school. He says a 1 percent "surcharge for education" is the key to fully funding education. But lawmakers, who see the governor's plan as a 33 percent income tax increase, are less than supportive of the plan.

[Illinois Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]