Lincoln College President Gerlach one-year anniversary
By David M. Gerlach, Ph.D., President, Lincoln College

[June 22, 2016]  Last summer I arrived in Illinois to become President of Lincoln College. This has been one of the most exciting and rewarding years of my life.

Shortly after my arrival, with the enthusiastic support of our Board of Trustees, we announced that Lincoln College will return to our roots as a multi-faceted four-year institution, which will expand its four- and two-year degree offerings and delivery modes.

We did this because it is best for our students. For more than 150 years, Lincoln College has prided itself on offering students the support they need to achieve their full potential. We want to give students the option to continue their education in the same nurturing, yet challenging, environment that guides them during their journey of higher learning.

Many of our students are the first members of their family to go to college. We have the most diverse student body of any downstate college, and the young people that come to Lincoln College are overwhelmingly from families of modest means. Almost all receive some form of aid and nearly half rely on the state’s MAP program to help them cover the cost of college.

But, like every institution of higher education in Illinois, our mission runs the risk of being derailed. Our students are threatened, not by anything under our control, but by the political infighting that has paralyzed Illinois for more than a year. We have heard repeatedly from students how this stalemate has hurt them. To pay for college, most of our MAP-eligible students must cobble together resources from multiple sources, including working while going to school. They have shared that their ability to stay in school is compromised because they have to pick up more hours of work, distracting them from their studies.

The political deadlock in Springfield is having an effect on higher education across the state and while our situation is not as desperate as some, we are not immune. Our three-year capital improvement plan has been shaved to two years as we divert resources to help our students cover the lost MAP dollars they were promised.

Like so many, I am frustrated by political leaders who seem engaged in a battle that will have no winners. When I listen to elected leaders, I cannot shake the feeling that their well-rehearsed talking points are not designed to move toward resolution, but rather to avoid responsibility.

Unfortunately, this stalemate is doing permanent damage to the state and to the very people that Illinois needs in order to move the state forward – the next generation of workers, managers and entrepreneurs.

Most students get one chance at college. The statistics are clear and sobering: students who are forced to interrupt their college education seldom finish their degrees. Graduating high school seniors are enrolling in out-of-state schools with a more stable financial outlook.

Those that leave Illinois are unlikely to return. Other states will benefit from the skills, creativity and ambition that drive these students. It represents exactly the wrong direction for a turnaround and will only accelerate a race to the bottom that Illinois cannot afford.

At a time when Illinois so desperately needs new jobs, new innovation and new tax dollars from an educated workforce, allowing students to become collateral damage in this political war is unconscionable.

David M. Gerlach, Ph.D.
President, Lincoln College