Leatherneck Nation

Noticed this come through today: https://macombnewsnow.com/macomb-news/379299
It's very confusing the way it's written though. Do we get $57M or $112k, or something else? I don't really know what's going on with that. Anyone else have any ideas?

Very confusing! 57 million? Or, 112000? jc

Neckfansince71 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 06, 2018 5:40 pm Very confusing! 57 million? Or, 112000? jc

ST_Lawson wrote: ↑Thu Sep 06, 2018 3:53 pm Noticed this come through today: https://macombnewsnow.com/macomb-news/379299
It's very confusing the way it's written though. Do we get $57M or $112k, or something else? I don't really know what's going on with that. Anyone else have any ideas?

I read it we get about 1/2 of what we need.

We get $57 million in capital funding from the Fiscal Year 2019 capital budget, which was approved in the Spring.

What we would need to do all was $112 million.


I say that because of the typical reporting in $1000 dollars, so $112,461 should have been $112,461 thousands, or $112,461,000, or about $112.5M

To help save money, they're bringing back the voluntary retirement program for employees: http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... e_id=15936

Budget update from President Thomas: http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... 15979&ur=1

Key point: "We will reduce expenditures by $5 million this fiscal year to address our immediate needs. In addition, each division will reduce its budget for Fiscal Year 2020. This will be done to decrease the University's annual budgeted expenditures by $21 million for FY20."

Those numbers for next year are based off of static enrollment and the same level of funding from the state as we had last year. If the new governor and state legislature are able to find more money for public universities in the state budget, then things might be a little better.

$26 million in cuts will result in a lot of jobs and programs being eliminated.

From what I could find from a quick google search, operational costs total in the $200M-$230M range for WIU. Don't get me wrong, $20M is a lot of cuts, but to me this is far from the death knell it's been made out to be. Private sector and small businesses don't blink an eye at 10% re-structuring cuts. It's usually followed by investment in product or service lines with much better growth potential. This is encouraging to me and the future of the University.

It will impact good, hardworking people, just like it does in the private sector. That shouldn't freeze an institution from positioning itself for a bright future though.

Headline story in today's McDonough County Voice:
WIU to cut FY 2020 budget by $21 Million.
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/news/2018 ... et-by-21-m

Of the areas/divisions that are being asked to make this cut, it's a 40% decrease (on top of having to function at 75% funding already over the last couple of years).

My division (under the Provost/Academic VP) will be getting the bulk of this cut. We will have to eliminate $16M of our division's budget, and none of it will include faculty (because they have to be notified 1 year in advance). All open positions are now eliminated. Anyone who was considering early retirement is strongly urged to get their paperwork in early so that they can take that into account. My wife and I both work in that division, so to say that we're worried about things is understatement. We won't know anything for sure until late January, but I'll say that based on seniority/experience and our positions it seems unlikely that we'd lose our jobs, but they've said that everything is on the table at this point.