From what I've seen/heard around campus, it seems like in general people are worried, but it's not really a specific "Western is going to shut down in 6 months" kind of worry. It's more of a..."will my job/department be eliminated" sort of worry. I don't see Western as an institution completely shutting down, but the longer this goes, the more that cuts will have to be made. At this point, those cuts would probably have to be eliminating departments and maybe restructuring the schools/divisions to reduce "overhead" (which could also include cutting a few administrative positions). The Admissions office has been hard at work over the last couple of years to bring in and retain students, which is why our freshman class last fall was almost exactly the same size as the freshman class the previous year. If that ends up being the "standard" freshman class size for a while, then we will likely (as was mentioned a few years back by, I believe President Goldfarb) stabilize somewhere around 6k-7k students at the Macomb campus. There will still be students, employees, classes, faculty...there will just be less of them.leatherface wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:57 am I'm going to ask a question for any Western employees on the site. It's a question few want to ask publicly,but, needs to be asked. What is the mood in the campus community regarding a possible shut down if the state continues the nickle and dime support for another year? It seems Western is listed in news articles along with Eastern as being on the bubble- now, along with SIU-C. Chicago State should have been shut down by now,however, I don't see that being allowed to happen. Likely the same with Northeastern Illinois.
Alums need to know how dire it could be for Western,and, asked to step up for support before the worst happens. I know you don't want to present an image that might run off future students and support, but, I don't know if most folks outside of alums and employees realize how serious it could be. It's fine to hear the president say all will be fine- builds up confidence. However, if it's getting to the point of not making payrolls, then folks need to know. A fine line to walk, I realize.
Is there a feeling on campus that Western's future is sliding away?
Now, whether you consider that "dire" or not (because it has already started happening with the phasing out of a few departments/majors last year and the delay of renewal of contracts for some of the faculty) is up to you, but Western does need your support. I'm sure many of you have already, but if you live in Illinois, put pressure on your local state congress-peeps, and if you don't, but you have friends and family who do, make sure they're aware of the situation (there's a lot of people who aren't directly involved with any public institutions who don't really realize what this means to the state's universities and what the impact will be on the state). There's no way we're getting out of this without both raising taxes and making cuts. Just one or the other is not going to work, and finally setting a budget, whatever it's set at, would allow schools and other groups to plan for the future, rather than just sitting around and reacting.
So, I guess the question of "how dire it could be for Western" depends on how you feel about the university's role in the community and in the state and how different of an institution you are ok with Western being down the road.
Anyway, that's just my perspective on things. Others may see it differently, but I'm not really sure that there are any other active employees on the message board (I know there's at least a few people who did work here and are now retired though).
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
jc
