Updates to faculty layoff plan and other stuff

[Tere North]

On Thursday, the Illinois House approved another stopgap spending plan that provides $800 million to human-service programs and higher education.

The House voted 64-45-1 on the bill, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans voting against it.

One of those votes against the stopgap came from Norine Hammond (Macomb).

Norine sent out an email explaining why. The gist was that beyond the money for education, there was funding for social service programs that don't even exist. No specifics were noted in the email, but that was the claim, and why she indicated she voted against the emergency stop-gap. She further said the Senate had already gone home, so the bill would have lingered before reaching them, allowing time to do better than the 1-day notice and called vote on the House Bill.

[wiu712]

WIU Prepping for Whatever Might Come Next.

From Tri-States Public Radio WIUM-FM:
http://tspr.org/post/wiu-prepping-whate ... &utm_term=

[wiu712]

WIU reacts to new stop gap proposal.
From tonight's WGEM-TV News:
http://www.wgem.com/story/35100162/2017 ... p-proposal


Proposed bill could soon help with budget woes for WIU.
From tonight's KHQA-TV-7 News:
http://khqa.com/news/local/proposed-bil ... es-for-wiu

[sealhall74]

WIU reacts to new stop gap proposal.
From tonight's WGEM-TV News:
http://www.wgem.com/story/35100162/2017 ... p-proposal


Proposed bill could soon help with budget woes for WIU.
From tonight's KHQA-TV-7 News:
http://khqa.com/news/local/proposed-bil ... es-for-wiu

Yep, we certainly need more money for education. Trained professionals (from khqa) dont even know how to spell "sophomore" this day and age.

[ST_Lawson]

WIU reacts to new stop gap proposal.
From tonight's WGEM-TV News:
http://www.wgem.com/story/35100162/2017 ... p-proposal


Proposed bill could soon help with budget woes for WIU.
From tonight's KHQA-TV-7 News:
http://khqa.com/news/local/proposed-bil ... es-for-wiu

Yep, we certainly need more money for education. Trained professionals (from khqa) dont even know how to spell "sophomore" this day and age.

[wiu712]

In the April 7 WGEM news story referenced above, President Thomas mentions that he was asked by the lawmakers in Springfield about what cuts could be made. President Thomas replied that Western has been cut to the bare bone and had nothing left to cut.

You have to wonder if the Quad Cities campus and the status of the Athletics program are at a possible risk.

[Tere North]

Eliminate on-campus summer school (online, internships, etc. only); campus during summer open only M-Th, 7-5; move all library faculty to 9-month, not 12-month contracts, and rotate to cover summer; eliminate Library Dean and merge with Arts and Sciences.; allow only 1 Assoc or Asst Dean per college, same for VP areas; eliminate VP position at QC and coordinate directly from Provost's Office; cap number of athletics scholarships per sport at 90% of NCAA max, using 50% of gain to offset minimal support of minor sports, e.g., track that allows split scholarships.

All told, I'd imagine that would save at least $5+M/year and be something we should be doing anyway.

[wiu712]

In today's Editorial, the Chicago Tribune states that Illinois should "Think big and needs to unify and re-order a university system that foolishly has nine separate boards overseeing 12 state-owned universities."

Governor, start fixing higher ed in Illinois: How to pour more spending into classrooms and labs.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opin ... story.html

[Tere North]

In today's Editorial, the Chicago Tribune states that Illinois should "Think big and needs to unify and re-order a university system that foolishly has nine separate boards overseeing 12 state-owned universities."
Governor, start fixing higher ed in Illinois: How to pour more spending into classrooms and labs.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opin ... story.html

A much bigger approach to a much bigger problem than WIU alone. I went to school in California, where they have the smaller, more elite UC (University of California) system with 9 total campuses and the larger, more open SU (State University) system with 23 campuses. The UC system has a single Board and the SU system has a single board.

While the expense of each non UofI school having its own Board is minor in the big picture, it does allow each to go their own way without considering the others. When I started at Western in 1984, we had the Board of Governors over the non UofI schools, determining who offered what, etc., effectively an arm of the IBHE. Honestly, it does make more sense if Illinois is going to have a more unified approach to education that we return to that type of system, though honestly, only UofI Urbana/Champaign and UofI Chicago should be the the UofI system, with UofI Springfield better fitting the more regional approach, like Western. However, since SIU/SIUe has a medical and dental school, they should be part of the UoI system, and perhaps add to the UofI system, so 4 UofI schools, and the rest reorganized to eliminate at least 1, e.g., CSU since the Chicago area already has NEIU and GSU, with 2 governing boards.

[sealhall74]

So how did the Board of Governors managed schools (Western, Eastern, etc.) move to self-governance? Did the state essentially say we no longer have the time and/or money to effectively manage you guys or did the schools simply fight for their own autonomy?