Leatherneck Nation

Macomb Mayor Mike Inman told the McDonough County Community Quality of Life Advisory Committee on Monday that the city has suffered a 4.5% drop in sales tax revenue because people are worried about the future. "There's a crisis in confidence in this community because of the state funding situation," Inman said.

Today's Macomb newspaper had a "Good News" / "Bad News" scenario.

The good news is that Western has the cash flow to get through the spring semester and into the summer.

The bad news is that without a state budget "drastic plans" (according to President Thomas) will be required to keep the doors open.

Building Services employees are expecting to soon hear if they will be laid off again for the summer. Last year, they were laid off one week after the spring semester ended. They were brought back on in August, two weeks before the start of the fall semester.

Western ‘hopeful’ as state budget stalemate drags on.
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/news/2017 ... e-drags-on

Western remains positive despite decreased enrollment.

From today's Western Courier:
http://westerncourier.com/37872/news/we ... nrollment/

University of Illinois and Northeastern Illinois University Cut Their Budgets.
From the Associated Press:

The state's ongoing budget deadlock has spurred the University of Illinois to ask its departments to cut an average of about 2 percent from their budgets — the school's third straight year of such cuts.

Interim Provost John Wilkin's office sent the budget guidelines this week to the school's academic units as budget planning begins for the 2018 fiscal year.

Wilkin declined to provide more specific numbers or the range of requested cuts, but he said most of Illinois' universities have budget shortfalls like the one the Urbana campus is facing due to the state budget impasse.

On Friday, Northeastern Illinois University officials said the school would lay off about 300 student aides and require nearly all school employees to take five days of unpaid leave during this month's spring break. The school will also close its entire Chicago campus during that weeklong break.

Democrats in the Illinois Senate this week halted consideration of a plan intended to end the legislature's two-year budget standoff with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

It's the third straight year of budget cuts for the University of Illinois, though some past cuts have been offset by income from rising enrollment or new online programs.

"It's not just about cuts. It's also about strategy and what happens in the coming year," Wilkin told The Champaign News-Gazette.

The school has operated with $306 million less in state funding than in normal budget times during the past two years combined.

In fiscal 2016, it received about a quarter of its usual appropriation and a little over half so far in fiscal 2017, which ends June 30. It's covered part of that shortfall through spending reductions and other changes in income sources, including tuition.

The school's colleges and other units have contributed some of their one-time cash resources to help cover the funding gap, and they may be asked to do so again this year, said Paul Ellinger, vice provost for budget and resource planning.

That leaves a deficit of about $90 million, which the campus plans to amortize over the next decade with about $9 million in annual cuts.

Governors State University cuts 22 degrees, hikes tuition 15 percent due to budget stalemate.

From today's Chicago Tribune by Dawn Rhodes, Contact Reporter:

Goovernors State University will eliminate nearly two dozen academic programs and hike tuition by 15 percent to cope with the state's historic budget stalemate, officials said Monday.

Starting this fall, 22 degree programs will be eliminated, including some within the undergraduate majors of communications, psychology, criminal justice, and teacher education. Current students will be able to complete their degrees in those subjects.

Governors State, located in southwest suburban University Park, enrolled about 5,600 students in 62 degree programs this past fall.

Elaine Maimon, the university's president, said Monday that additional cuts are likely if the budget impasse isn't resolved soon. The state's public colleges and universities have had no funding from Springfield this year and only partial funding during the prior 18 months as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled legislature have been unable to agree on a state spending plan since July 2015.

"We've been doing everything we can to try to figure out more efficient ways of doing things. We're at the limit of that now," Maimon said.

The budget crisis, now in its 20th month, has forced universities across the state to cut academic programs, lay off staff and take other action to make ends meet. Northeastern Illinois University on the city's North Side, for example, will shut down for a week later this month as nearly all employees take five furlough days during spring break. In addition, almost 300 student employees will lose their jobs, the university announced Friday.

While some Illinois schools plan to keep tuition flat despite the decline in state revenue, Governors State trustees Friday approved a tuition hike that will have incoming full-time undergraduates paying about $9,400 per year, up from $8,160. Tuition rose about 12 percent between 2011 and 2015, and then was unchanged last year.

Governors State has received about $19.7 million in state funding during the past 20 months, compared with $24 million in 2015, the most recent year of full funding. The university cut 62 employees and 13 academic programs last summer.

Maimon also noted a growing backlog in maintenance projects, now commonplace at the state's public universities.

"From 2008 until now, we had built up reserves, hard as it was to do. But they are becoming depleted. This is just a horrendous problem. It is the responsibility of the state to address it," Maimon said.

Governors State was founded in 1969 as an upper-division school for students finishing their degrees. It became a four-year university and welcomed freshmen in fall 2014.

The State budget stalemate is also impacting the community colleges.

The State is to supply one-third of funding for each of 48 community colleges in Illinois.

In fiscal 2012, John Wood Community College (Quincy) received close to $3.1 million from the state.

In fiscal 2016, the figure had fallen to just under $344,000.

The Senate is having a hearing today (March 7) to hear Testimony on the Governor’s proposed budget from the following:
Illinois Board of Higher Education, Community College Board, Student Assistance Commission, Chicago State University, E.I.U., Governors State University, I.S.U., Northeastern Illinois University, N.I.U., S.I.U., University of Illinois, and W.I.U.

At Monday's Macomb City Council meeting, McDonough County Public Transportation Transit Director Nathan Cobb said that WIU enrollment is projected to drop by another six percent for 2017-2018.

WOW!

Yes, it sucks to drop enrollment, but if you remember last fall, our freshman class was nearly exactly the same as the previous year's freshman class, however we still dropped overall enrollment because the outgoing senior class was larger.
If we had exactly the same freshman class in 2017 as we did in 2016, and you were going off of a calculation where all students listed as Seniors last fall will be gone, then we should actually drop 9.7%. Obviously there's a ton of other factors, incoming/outgoing transfers, students taking more or less time to graduate, dropping out, etc....but all other things being equal, we should be dropping more. 6% isn't bad considering the current situation...everything else going on in the state.