This May, Donnie Lewis will earn an associate degree from Richland Community College, in Illinois, putting him one step closer to his dream of becoming a lobbyist at the state’s General Assembly. But Mr. Lewis, legislative chair of the community-college system’s student-advisory committee, said a fierce deadlock over the state’s budget would prevent nearly a dozen of his classmates from graduating with him.
Those students come from low-income backgrounds and rely on state-funded grants, averaging close to $3,000 annually, to help pay for their education. With Bruce V. Rauner, the Republican governor, and the Democratic-controlled legislature mired in a bitter standoff over the budget for the fiscal year that started last July, public colleges haven’t received state money for the grants — or anything else — in nearly seven months.
‘Who would want to come take a job in Illinois right now?’
Richland put up $143,000 from its emergency reserves to pay for the grants in the fall. But Lisa Gregory, a spokeswoman, said the college couldn’t foot that bill this spring without significant cuts elsewhere; that’s also the case at most of the state’s 48 two-year colleges. Some public universities, also smarting from the gap in state support, aren’t sure how much longer they’ll be able to do so.
Colleges don’t have an official headcount yet, but Randy J. Dunn, president of the Southern Illinois University system, said it is possible that thousands of students may not return, given the uncertainty around their financial aid.
Officials say that’s far from the only consequence from the lack of state money, particularly at community colleges and regional universities, which are more dependent on that support than research institutions are. Most of them have been forced to tap cash reserves to keep the campuses operating. Some institutions have laid off faculty and staff members, left positions vacant, and suspended programs. Others say similar actions aren’t far off.
‘Wasteful Spending, Corruption’
Tom Wogan, a spokesman for Chicago State University, told The Chronicle on Wednesday that the institution had exhausted its reserves and wouldn’t be able to make payroll come March without the state’s help. In response to a request for comment, Mr. Rauner’s office sent The Chronicle a memorandum, written on Wednesday by his chief legislative aide and sent to the legislature, stating that “recent reports of wasteful spending, corruption, and low academic performance at Chicago State are plentiful.”
Elsewhere, the president of Eastern Illinois University sparked alarm in November when he said his institution might have to shut down this spring, though he later offered assurances that the campus would remain open. Western Illinois University has sent informal layoff notices to more than 40 faculty members, including a handful who have tenure.
College officials say they are doing their best to minimize consequences for students and to preserve academic quality. But they acknowledge that the budget delay has thrown them into unprecedented waters. They’re wondering how to plan for the possibility that the state will simply skip higher-education funding for the current academic year.
Nearly a year ago Mr. Rauner proposed slashing the state’s higher-education contribution by $387 million — nearly one-third of the previous year’s budget.
It was part of a sweeping set of cuts — his “turnaround budget” — that he said was necessary to bring stability to a state plagued by high pension costs and excessive spending. Democratic lawmakers eventually passed a budget that reduced the higher-education cut to 6.5 percent, leaving a $3-billion gap in the state’s coffers. Mr. Rauner vetoed it. (Most public sectors — including elementary and secondary schools — have received state funding for the year through various court orders, but none of the orders apply to higher education.)
Budget delays aren’t especially unusual, in Illinois or elsewhere. A similar impasse in Pennsylvania forced colleges to dip into reserves to ensure that students didn’t lose their financial aid in the fall, and debates over higher-education funding continue there. But virtually no one in Illinois expected the state to reach January without an agreement.
“We’re facing a situation over the coming weeks,” said Mr. Dunn, of Southern Illinois, “where some of our higher-education institutions may just not be financially viable and able to last through the spring semester.” Besides Chicago State, he said he knew of at least one regional college that was “working intently to find support for a short-term borrowing plan.”
Tapping Reserves and Taxpayers
Danville Area Community College, a small two-year institution about 150 miles south of Chicago, receives nearly a quarter of its budget from the state, said Tammy Clark-Betancourt, the college’s chief financial officer. Officials are using local taxes and a cash reserve fund to pay the college’s bills, she said, but that fund has to be repaid within a year.
The college isn’t covering the cost of the low-income grants this semester, a decision that affects 180 students, she said. At Richland, more than 200 students won’t receive the aid. Ms. Gregory, the spokeswoman, said the college was asking students to meet with its foundation staff and financial-aid officials to consider possible solutions.
Regional colleges face similar pressures. Though community colleges tend to have fewer resources than four-year universities do, two-year institutions in Illinois have the authority to levy local taxes, giving them a nonstate revenue source that regional colleges lack, said Christopher A. Pynes, a professor of philosophy at Western Illinois and president of its Faculty Senate. Community colleges can also borrow money, while regional colleges can’t do so without the state’s approval.
Excluding some local funds and housing and dining services, 40 percent of Eastern Illinois’s budget comes from the state, said Paul A. McCann, the university’s interim vice president for business affairs and treasurer. Between layoffs, furloughs, and vacant positions, the university is down by 250 people, Mr. McCann said. The faculty cuts so far have all hit contingent professors, he said.
That’s not the case with the layoffs at Western Illinois. “Some of them were full professors with 15 years of service to the university,” Mr. Pynes said. Moreover, administrators recently asked him to hold elections for a faculty committee to evaluate cutting programs that would cause the elimination of faculty positions.
Most conservative lawmakers agree with Governor Rauner that Illinois has been spending irresponsibly for years. Illinois “is probably in the worst financial condition of any state,” said David S. Luechtefeld, a Republican senator. “We cannot operate the way we’ve been going.”
Still, Mr. Luechtefeld isn’t blind to how colleges are being affected by the legislative impasse. “There is a point where, if this goes on for a lot longer, it could get really, really severe,” he said. As for when public institutions could expect to see state money, he said that “we’re hearing this could continue into next year’s budget.”
Pat McGuire, a Democratic senator and chair of the state Senate’s higher-education committee, said colleges were already working toward reform, examining ways to improve access for low-income students and to better match their curricula with the state’s work-force needs. He hoped Mr. Rauner would give the colleges time to show some results.
Mr. McGuire introduced a bill last week that would provide $168 million to reimburse colleges for the money they spent on low-income grants in the fall. Mr. Rauner has already vetoed two bills that would fund the program, Mr. McGuire said, and he wasn’t sure whether this legislation would meet a better fate.
Rumors and Damage Control
Beyond financial-aid cuts and layoffs, students and faculty members say the most immediate effect of the budget crisis is a blow to morale. Even the most-passive students have noticed the apprehension across the campus, said Shirmeen Ahmad, student-body president at Eastern Illinois.
First-year students in particular, she said, “are wondering what exactly is going to be happening in the future. Where exactly will we stand?”
Mr. Pynes expressed concerns about faculty recruitment and retention at Western Illinois. Even if the university were hiring, he said, “who would want to come take a job in Illinois right now?”
The employee union to which Western Illinois faculty members belong recently surveyed professors, asking if they were looking for work elsewhere, Mr. Pynes said. “Most faculty members who believe they have a legitimate chance of getting a job elsewhere are applying for jobs,” he said. “If you don’t have a significant reason to stay in western Illinois, you’re trying to leave.”
Negative headlines — particularly after the speculation that Eastern Illinois might close — have forced many colleges to do damage control. Northern Illinois University, a research institution, has issued a number of campuswide emails to assure faculty, staff, and students that the university isn’t in danger of shutting down, said Gregory Long, a professor in the university’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
“People worry, and when people worry, rumors start,” said Mr. Long, who is president of the Faculty Senate there.
The hardest part of dealing with the budget delay is the uncertainty, said Ms. Clark-Betancourt, of Danville Area Community College. “These are people’s lives and their employment,” she said, “and you’re having to make decisions on the very conservative assumption that money’s not coming.”
Will the state will retroactively reimburse the colleges once a budget agreement is reached? Last month the state’s community-college presidents met with Governor Rauner, said Lisa Gregory, a spokeswoman for Richland Community College, and one of them asked about a partial reimbursement. According to Ms. Gregory, the governor responded: “Don’t count on it.”
If there are no state appropriations for this year, said Mr. Dunn, of Southern Illinois, “it will take us years to dig out of that hole.”
Colleges Facing Change
Still, some officials are fighting to stay positive. Danville is “in a good financial position to weather this storm,” said Ms. Clark-Betancourt, the financial officer. “It’s not like we’ll close our doors tomorrow if there’s no budget.” She said the college could remain open for three years without the state’s help.
Mr. Long, of Northern Illinois, said the budget delay had helped his institution make some strategic cuts and prioritize efficiency. That mind-set will be helpful in the future, he said.
With major cuts seeming inevitable, however, colleges in Illinois could look much different within a couple of years, said Ms. Gregory. “Thus far, we’ve been comprehensive, offering programs across the board,” she said. “Does that mission get redefined?”
The consequences for students are already disastrous, said Mr. Lewis, the Richland Community College student. One young woman he knows was taking classes through the college’s adult-education program at an off-campus location, but Richland has reduced the size of the program to save money. She doesn’t have a flexible schedule, and she can’t drive, Mr. Lewis said, so she can’t easily get to the main campus. She was forced to drop out this semester.
While the Southern Illinois system has fronted the low-income grants for nearly 8,000 students this semester, Mr. Dunn said, officials have told students that they might be on the hook for the money if the state doesn’t enact a budget.
Earlier this week, Senator McGuire said he had attended a program for prospective college students at a high school in his district. Once the presentation turned to financial aid and the state’s grant program, Mr. McGuire said, “a pall fell over the room.”
It pained him, he said, to see working-class families trying to figure out how to afford college and not knowing whether the aid would be there. “What we’re doing to them,” he said, “is horrible.”
Correction (1/21/2016, 6:23 p.m.): Tammy Clark-Betancourt’s surname was rendered inconsistently as “Betancourt-Clark.” This article has been updated to correct that. The Chronicle regrets the error.
Sarah Brown writes about a range of higher-education topics, including sexual assault, race on campus, and Greek life. Follow her on Twitter @Brown_e_Points, or email her at sarah.brown@chronicle.com.
