A New Academic Year Brings Fresh Anxiety at Illinois’s Public Colleges

David Mercer, AP Images

It’s been more than a year since Illinois’s public colleges and universities have seen permanent funding from the state budget.

Legislators approved $600 million in emergency funding for the colleges in April, a sum that is tiding them over during the continuing budget deadlock, between the state’s Republican governor, Bruce V. Rauner, and its Democratic-led legislature. But as they prepare for a new academic year, college leaders are pining for more than just a sum; they want predictability. Without long-term funding, many aspects of college life are thrown into uncertainty.

And as they attempt to make plans with temporary dollars, administrators are wondering if this yearlong crisis will reverberate for years to come.

Edward Feser, interim provost of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said the flagship’s budget for the 2016 fiscal year had accounted for about a 20-percent reduction in state funding, but when the legislature approved only stopgap funding through December 2016, the university had to dip into its cash reserves.

Mr. Feser said the flagship had taken a gamble, expecting that the state would eventually replenish the funds. The university could then reduce spending by about $18 million for the next fiscal year.

With increased enrollment bringing in a steady flow of tuition dollars, the flagship hasn’t had huge problems yet — cuts in academic programs or hiring freezes, for example — but even after Illinois finally enacts a state budget, Mr. Feser worries state support won’t be the same.

“We are anticipating that the State of Illinois will have reduced capacity to support higher education over the next eight to 10 years, and we are trying to position the campus to adjust,” Mr. Feser said.

For now the university has been forced to cope with the state’s instability and the repeated stopgap funding, Mr. Feser said. “We are limping along, stopgap to stopgap. That is a terrible situation because it creates great uncertainty for families and students,” he said.

Faculty Departures

Matthew Ando, a mathematics professor who was chair of the Campus Budget Advisory Task Force at Urbana-Champaign, said that to avoid cuts this fall, many department heads had been forced to combine sections of courses, as his department had done.

Mr. Ando said there had been about a 10-percent drop in the number of classes originally planned for this fall, but the department had had to restore classes in response to enrollment increases.

“We doubled the size of many classes in order to make the savings of 30 to 35 classes — in some places we more than tripled it,” Mr. Ando said. “And when that happens, it changes the nature of what we do.”

An increase in class size doesn’t let Mr. Ando offer the type of experience he wants to and once did, he said. Now he worries that his ability to reach students individually may slip away.

The math department also saw twice as many faculty departures as in past years, Mr. Ando said, and he attributed that trend to the budget stalemate.

Faculty members are concerned not just about larger class sizes, but about everything the state budget touches, including health care and pension plans, Mr. Ando said.

Those aren’t simple issues that can be solved by raising tuition, he added, but for now all he and his department can do is wait and hope for the best.

‘We’re Very Lean Already’

At regional public universities in Illinois, the uncertainty created by a lack of state funding is harder to alleviate, said Christopher Pynes, a philosophy professor and chair of the Faculty Senate at Western Illinois University.

Regional institutions — lacking rich endowments, deep-pocketed donors, lucrative research projects, and other revenue streams — rely more on state funding, and when the legislature can’t enact a budget, those universities are hit the hardest, Mr. Pynes said.

The campus hardest hit by the impasse has been Chicago State University, which said on April 29 that it would have to lay off 300 employees, or a full third of its staff. The reductions have set off a wave of dread among employees.

Western Illinois recently extended its furlough for noninstructional and non-civil-service staff members from the 2016 to the 2017 fiscal year, said Darcie Shinberger, a university spokeswoman.

Over the summer the university laid off 131 employees, although about 65 of them were called back, and some contracts for noninstructional staff members were reduced from 12 months to 10 months, she said.

Though Western Illinois hasn’t cut programs, the university is constantly reviewing where it can save money, Ms. Shinberger said. The institution still has about $20 million to trim over the next two fiscal years to keep from running a deficit. “We may have to reduce hours for certain programs, for certain departments, for certain buildings,” she said.

Mr. Pynes said this summer has been nerve-racking as he was not sure if the university would have enough money to pay its staff and faculty.

After some faculty members had to give back their raises and 50 were laid off, in December 2015, the faculty’s biggest fear now is continued employment, Mr. Pynes said.

“People are concerned. They are looking for other jobs,” Mr. Pynes said. “There is going to be a brain drain. People are going to leave the state of Illinois.”

Rae M. Goldsmith, a spokeswoman for Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, said administrators had asked department heads what they would spare for the current year to help with cash flow. In total, the university saved $13.6 million in permanent and one-time reductions.

Spending amounts over $5,000 now requires approval from the chancellor, travel with state funds is frozen, and hiring is decided on a case-by-case basis, Ms. Goldsmith said.

People on the Carbondale campus aren’t holding their breath, she said, and are preparing for the state to come back with reduced funding. “We’re very lean already,” she said. “What we have to do now is take a deep breath and say, What are the long-term things we need to do to position ourselves for a new fiscal reality?”

That’s where Southern Illinois will be forced to evaluate academic programs and different university processes, Ms. Goldsmith said. “The realities are that we are committed to moving forward, but it’s very difficult to plan in this uncertain environment,” she said.

A Tricky Spot

Watchers of the Illinois State House expect some of that uncertainty to clear by the end of this year.

Jeanette Malafa, assistant to the president for governmental relations at Western Illinois, said a resolution of the budget deadlock may be on the horizon.

After elections for the State Senate and House this fall, the legislature will pass a budget either during the postelection veto session or in January 2017, when the new lawmakers take office, Ms. Malafa said. While the university waits for permanent state funding, she said, it is also in a tricky spot when negotiating with legislators about temporary funding.

Its leaders want to maintain confidence in the university, while also communicating that Western Illinois needs state funding and convincing legislators to invest in the institution, Ms. Malafa said. “The hard part for higher ed is that there are so many choices and we are so competitive,” she said. “It’s an extremely fine line that you have to walk in order to tell your story and maintain public confidence.”

Elaine P. Maimon, president of Governors State University, said that to make payroll her institution has had to use money set aside for emergency repairs, eliminate 13 programs, eight majors, and five concentrations, and cut 62 administrative and teaching positions.

Ms. Maimon said she hopes the university is not forced to change the 30-student cap in class sizes or cut student-support programs.

Sometimes, she said, she has been encouraged to tell a horror story or indicate that the university will close if it doesn’t receive enough state funding, but few leaders are eager to talk down their own institutions.

“We are doing everything possible to protect students, and so we don’t want that held against us,” Ms. Maimon said. “That really puts everything on a downward spiral.”

Correction (8/23/2016, 10:35 a.m.): Matthew Ando was originally misidentified as chair of the faculty senate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was actually chair of the Campus Budget Advisory Task Force there. The article has been adjusted accordingly.

Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a web writer. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.