WIU Layoffs

[sealhall74]

Comments like this shows how tonedeaf and ineffective our leadership actually is. This is not the first round of layoffs. Programs have been cut, staff has been laid off several times. The last president at WIU that has actually done anything was Goldfarb and he’s been gone for over a decade. 




 

And in my opinion, we are still suffering from the damage wrought after he left. Like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, WIU is NOT the WIU we all remember.




 

I'm not going to say that we haven't had troubled leadership at times, but it doesn't help that the state is funding the university at such a significantly lower level. Last fall I took a look at what the university receives from the state (adjusted for inflation) and compared it to enrollment (see chart below). You can pretty clearly see a 2-3 year trailing corrolation between the two. Essentally, whatever happens with funding from the state, enrollment goes the same way within a couple of years. There is currently a bill working its way through the state legislature designed to fix the underfunding of public universities, but it's going to be a couple of years before it's in effect assuming it gets signed into law:
https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wni ... -education
https://news.wttw.com/2024/03/08/illino ... ssion-says


 


 

If you created similar charts for the two public university "systems" that we are competing against for dollars, what would we see? Some will say the autonomy is good.  I say it is killing us.
 
 

[ST_Lawson]

If you created similar charts for the two public university "systems" that we are competing against for dollars, what would we see? Some will say the autonomy is good.  I say it is killing us.

 

I don't know what other universities' charts would look like specifically because I don't have funding numbers for all the schools.

I do know that the U of I, and to a lesser extent, ISU, get much more of their funding from donations and endowment than the directional state schools do. Decreased funding from the state doesn't impact things quite as hard there because the state funding is a much lower percentage of their overall operating budget (I've heard U of I gets like 3% of their operating budget from the state...we're at like 70%). Operating budget funding from the state has, I believe, decreased roughly the same percentage for all schools in that timeframe.

I do also know that all of the state schools with the exception of the U of I system and ISU have had significant decreases in enrollment during that timeframe. In the 20 years from 2002 to 2022:

• CSU dropped 68.2% overall including a massive 25% drop in 2016 from just over 7k to just over 2k.
• EIU dropped 20.7% overall. They had increases in 2018, 19, and 2020, but from what I've heard, it was really more of a change to how they count dual-credit/enrollment students (HS juniors and seniors taking classes that also count for college credit) rather than an actual increase in the number of college students taking classes there.
• NIU dropped 38.6%, steadily dropping by around 2-5% every year since 2008 with the exception of 2009 and 2020 where they were essentially flat.
• SIUC dropped 46.9% including nearly 12% drop in 2018. They did have a slight increase (2.3%) last fall.
• SIUE dropped 9.4% overall. They were actually growing slowly until the budget impasse in 2015, after which nearly every year has been a decrease (they did increase a little in 2021).
• And for comparison, WIU dropped 47.5%, slowly decreasing from 2007 on, with larger decreases during and shortly after the budget impasse, flattening out in 2020-2022, but then dropping again last fall due to issues with some of the newly admitted students (that was the issue with a lot of kids just not going to class and not trying at all).
• I don't have data for GSU and NEIU from 20 years ago, but in the last 10 years: GSU down 22%, NEIU down 49%

For the curious, here are the actual enrollment numbers for all the schools, color coded from lowest for that school (red) to highest (green):



And here are the numbers for year-to-year changes, color coded the same way and with the state budget impasse marked on the right side:



 

[wiu712]

Students speak out about layoffs: ‘A loss for WIU’.
From Tri-States Public Radio, WIUM-FM:
 https://www.tspr.org/tspr-local-news/20 ... ss-for-wiu
 
 

[vatusay]

WIU signed their own death note with their over-reaction to the wheeler street situation. 

No one will ever change my mind. 

Of course, a certain president accelerated the decline. 

 
 

[jtrinaldi]

Comments like this shows how tonedeaf and ineffective our leadership actually is. This is not the first round of layoffs. Programs have been cut, staff has been laid off several times. The last president at WIU that has actually done anything was Goldfarb and he’s been gone for over a decade. 



 

And in my opinion, we are still suffering from the damage wrought after he left. Like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, WIU is NOT the WIU we all remember.



 

I'm not going to say that we haven't had troubled leadership at times, but it doesn't help that the state is funding the university at such a significantly lower level. Last fall I took a look at what the university receives from the state (adjusted for inflation) and compared it to enrollment (see chart below). You can pretty clearly see a 2-3 year trailing corrolation between the two. Essentally, whatever happens with funding from the state, enrollment goes the same way within a couple of years. There is currently a bill working its way through the state legislature designed to fix the underfunding of public universities, but it's going to be a couple of years before it's in effect assuming it gets signed into law:
https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wni ... -education
https://news.wttw.com/2024/03/08/illino ... ssion-says


 

 

I totally understand what you’re saying, but who is being held accountable for creating positive change?  I’d really like to hear what the vision and projections are once we “get out of” this year. 

Nobody is championing our university much less whatever is happening behind closed doors.  


The university has continued to restructure the trustees and the result has been nearly identical to the leaderships whose mess they were supposed to cleanup.  At some point we just have to accept that our lame duck presidents are enabled to collect a fat check by the lame ducks on the board of trustees, neither of which public facing departments have been transparent in any of this. 

[rocki]

And in my opinion, we are still suffering from the damage wrought after he left. Like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, WIU is NOT the WIU we all remember.




 

I'm not going to say that we haven't had troubled leadership at times, but it doesn't help that the state is funding the university at such a significantly lower level. Last fall I took a look at what the university receives from the state (adjusted for inflation) and compared it to enrollment (see chart below). You can pretty clearly see a 2-3 year trailing corrolation between the two. Essentally, whatever happens with funding from the state, enrollment goes the same way within a couple of years. There is currently a bill working its way through the state legislature designed to fix the underfunding of public universities, but it's going to be a couple of years before it's in effect assuming it gets signed into law:
https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wni ... -education
https://news.wttw.com/2024/03/08/illino ... ssion-says


 


 

I totally understand what you’re saying, but who is being held accountable for creating positive change?  I’d really like to hear what the vision and projections are once we “get out of” this year. 

Nobody is championing our university much less whatever is happening behind closed doors.  


The university has continued to restructure the trustees and the result has been nearly identical to the leaderships whose mess they were supposed to cleanup.  At some point we just have to accept that our lame duck presidents are enabled to collect a fat check by the lame ducks on the board of trustees, neither of which public facing departments have been transparent in any of this. 

 

Aren't the BOT appointed by the governor? If so, there's not much we can do.
 

[sealhall74]

I'm not going to say that we haven't had troubled leadership at times, but it doesn't help that the state is funding the university at such a significantly lower level. Last fall I took a look at what the university receives from the state (adjusted for inflation) and compared it to enrollment (see chart below). You can pretty clearly see a 2-3 year trailing corrolation between the two. Essentally, whatever happens with funding from the state, enrollment goes the same way within a couple of years. There is currently a bill working its way through the state legislature designed to fix the underfunding of public universities, but it's going to be a couple of years before it's in effect assuming it gets signed into law:
https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wni ... -education
https://news.wttw.com/2024/03/08/illino ... ssion-says


 



 

I totally understand what you’re saying, but who is being held accountable for creating positive change?  I’d really like to hear what the vision and projections are once we “get out of” this year. 

Nobody is championing our university much less whatever is happening behind closed doors.  


The university has continued to restructure the trustees and the result has been nearly identical to the leaderships whose mess they were supposed to cleanup.  At some point we just have to accept that our lame duck presidents are enabled to collect a fat check by the lame ducks on the board of trustees, neither of which public facing departments have been transparent in any of this. 


 

Aren't the BOT appointed by the governor? If so, there's not much we can do.
 

 

I would bet my last bottom dollar that the Gov gets a list of potential BOT candidates directly from the administration VIPs.  Of course, he can pick and choose from the list or not.  Maybe these positions should be elected much like they are for community colleges. 
 

[rocki]

I have no idea where the list for the BOT comes from. But, considering IL is broke and is still spending like there's no tomorrow, doesn't seem like we can expect much.

[wiu712]

There are 8 members on the BOT.

7 are appointed by the Governor.

The other member is elected by the WIU students.  That current BOT member is Cody Cornell -- an Agriculture major.  He serves a 1-year term:  July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025.  He is the BOT Secretary. 

WIU sends out layoff notices to nearly 90 employees. 
From Tri-States Public Radio, WIUM-FM:
https://www.tspr.org/tspr-local-news/20 ... -employees


Western Illinois University lays off additional 89 workers.
From WGEM News:
https://www.wgem.com/2024/08/09/western ... 9-workers/


WIU to cut 57 faculty and 32 staff positions amid financial restructuring.
From KHQA News:
https://khqa.com/news/local/wiu-to-cut- ... tructuring#

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[ST_Lawson]

I totally understand what you’re saying, but who is being held accountable for creating positive change?  I’d really like to hear what the vision and projections are once we “get out of” this year. 

Nobody is championing our university much less whatever is happening behind closed doors.  


The university has continued to restructure the trustees and the result has been nearly identical to the leaderships whose mess they were supposed to cleanup.  At some point we just have to accept that our lame duck presidents are enabled to collect a fat check by the lame ducks on the board of trustees, neither of which public facing departments have been transparent in any of this. 


 

Aren't the BOT appointed by the governor? If so, there's not much we can do.
 

 

I would bet my last bottom dollar that the Gov gets a list of potential BOT candidates directly from the administration VIPs.  Of course, he can pick and choose from the list or not.  Maybe these positions should be elected much like they are for community colleges. 
 

I’m not familiar with how community colleges do it…who votes in that process? I feel like if it’s only people in the region or something, that would be a disaster for the university.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk