Leatherneck Nation

The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees have approved a 3.9 percent increase undergraduate tuition for the Carbondale campus and eliminated out-of-state fees.

WSIL-TV reports the action Thursday increases annual tuition by $351 per year to $9,450.

University President Randy Dunn says the tuition increase is the best solution to keep up with the operating costs and the lack of state funding. He says it will help avoid cost-cutting while trying to grow the university.

By eliminating out-of-state fees, the trustees hope to attract more students from outside Illinois.

SIU spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith has said the tuition increase is projected to raise $2.9 million in new revenue.

The trustees also approved higher room-and-board rates. The campus hopes to start building new dormitories within a few years.

News reports yesterday are saying that Illinois’ financial situation is so bad that the state would have to slash spending by more than 26 percent to balance next year’s budget through cuts alone.

I am sure there would be fierce opposition to this, but I for one would rather see $12-15B fed dollars used to bail the State of Illinois out rather than build a goofy wall on the southern border.

The Governor will be giving his annual Budget Address on Wednesday (Feb 15). This will be carried on Illinois PBS stations.

sealhall74 wrote: Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:26 am I am sure there would be fierce opposition to this, but I for one would rather see $12-15B fed dollars used to bail the State of Illinois out rather than build a goofy wall on the southern border.

Opposition?....not from me.

The whole wall thing seems pretty dumb to me. But I'm not a border agent so I'm not qualified on the matter.

I just hope SOMETHING can get accomplished on the state level. I'm not talking about deciding whether Obama's birthday should be a holiday or not. Who cares.

In today's Budget Address to the General Assembly, this is the only mention that Rauner made about Higher Education:

"When it comes to higher education, we understand the hardship being felt by students who rely on state assistance to go to college. That's why we're proposing a 10 percent increase to MAP Grant funding – so those students can focus on learning, and not their next tuition bill."

No mention was made about funding for the state universities.

Student Government Association Student Tenant Union Senator John Kennealy has proposed dropping Western down to Division II Athletics to cut down on travel expenses and other miscellaneous fees.

He said: “Operating cost might be less where we play in a league that we don’t have to travel out West all the way out to Colorado, or we have more of a focus on closer opponents.”

I think the financial problem is a little bigger than a handful of trips to Denver.

Nobody (few people) cares about DII athletics. Its been brought up before, but anybody that truly believes rooting for a DII playoff birth is as exciting as rooting for a March Madness bid or a DI regional tournament is off their meds.