Illinois Still Hasn’t Passed a Budget. Here’s What That Means for Its Public Universities.

Seth Perlman, AP Images

Public universities in Illinois seem destined to enter a second year with no budget from the state. A bitter showdown of clashing principles and heated rhetoric between Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Bruce V. Rauner, a Republican, has dragged on since the spring of 2015. Now, with the passing of a legislative deadline at midnight on Tuesday, the state’s colleges are having to plan for unprecedented circumstances as the July 1 start of a new fiscal year approaches.

Universities and community colleges went nearly 10 months without a dime of state money. In April a stopgap measure provided some relief, though it included only about a third of the state support the campuses would have received under the budget Democratic lawmakers backed last year. Chicago State University has been on the brink of shutting down for months, and rumors of a closure have also circulated at Eastern Illinois University, whose credit rating was downgraded to junk-bond status in February.

Several college leaders interviewed by The Chronicle say their institutions’ summer classes will go on as usual, and students shouldn’t see any major changes in campus life this fall. Officials are holding out hope that lawmakers will hammer out a budget agreement this summer. They say, however, that their universities can’t preserve their academic quality — or their financial health — if this past year’s slim funding is repeated.

One of the most pressing short-term questions for colleges concerns the state’s grant program for low-income students. The four-year public colleges footed the bill for the financial aid during the past academic year, under the assumption that the state would reimburse them. Lawmakers eventually offered enough money to cover the grants for last fall, but not spring, in the stopgap bill. But officials say that if lawmakers don’t cover the cost of the grants for the coming fall, the institutions may not be able to provide them. That could leave thousands of students who rely on the grants unsure of whether they can enroll, just weeks before the semester begins.

Here’s what officials say is next for their institutions, now that the budget deadline has passed yet again.

University of Illinois System

The system includes the flagship Urbana-Champaign campus and two other institutions, in Springfield and Chicago. In the short term, the three campuses are in good shape, said Timothy L. Killeen, the system’s president, and fall enrollment is expected to be up across the board. The system hasn’t made the staffing cuts or issued the dire proclamations that several other colleges have, and students shouldn’t see many changes this fall, he said.

Still, “it’s a significant point in time,” Mr. Killeen said. In an email to the system’s students, faculty, and staff on Wednesday, he called the budget impasse “unprecedented” and said he was “gravely concerned” about another months-long stretch without state money.

“We have to much more seriously consider options we’ve had on the table for quite a while,” he told The Chronicle.

Among the options he said he isn’t ruling out in the near future: academic-program cuts and faculty and staff layoffs. The system is already down about 350 employees, he said, mostly due to attrition.

But he’s convinced that state leaders will be able to find common ground in the next few weeks. “There’s a lot of good faith in the state legislature on all sides to resolve this,” he said. “And I’m confident that it will be resolved, though it’s taking much longer than I thought it would.”

Western Illinois University

As a regional institution, Western Illinois is more reliant on state money than many of the 11 other public colleges, so it has taken a harder hit during the budget impasse. The university is anticipating an enrollment drop of about 10 percent this fall.

“Students and parents are just worried,” said Darcie R. Shinberger, a university spokeswoman. “They’re watching and waiting to see what’s going to happen in this state and whether there’s going to be a commitment to funding higher education.”

So far the university has laid off 110 staff members and about 40 faculty members, none of whom had tenure. Most of the staff cuts took effect last month, but the faculty members will keep their jobs through the next academic year or the one after that, depending on their contracts. About 500 employees were required to take either a pay cut or a furlough day each week from April 1 through the end of this month.

More layoffs and furloughs are possible this summer, Ms. Shinberger said, and officials plan to find another $20 million in cuts over the next two years. “It’s been a critical situation,” she said, but “our doors will remain open.”

Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois officials are reaching into the “same bag of tricks” they’ve used over the past year to keep the system’s two main campuses financially viable, said Randy J. Dunn, the system’s president. But “we can’t keep relying on these tricks much longer,” he said.

The Carbondale campus, which is a research institution, has scaled back its summer academic offerings. In the fall, Mr. Dunn said, both universities will have to eliminate sections of some courses. The system has left vacant nearly 200 positions — many of them on the faculty. Officials are also reviewing Southern Illinois’s degree programs, he said, and he expects some to be shuttered by next year.

Enrollment will probably be down this fall on both campuses, Mr. Dunn said. He’s hearing from many students and parents that they’re concerned about specific programs — and potentially the institutions themselves — not being there.

“We try to send a message as strongly as we can that SIU isn’t going anywhere,” he said. “But sometimes that’s a tough sell.”

Unless the legislature and Governor Rauner manage to strike a budget compromise soon, Mr. Dunn said, another stopgap bill is “probably what it’s going to take to keep us all in business.”

Northeastern Illinois University

Sharon K. Hahs, Northeastern’s president, described the university’s current status as “stable.” All faculty and staff members were furloughed for seven weeks this spring, but officials halted the furloughs after the stopgap bill was passed.

The university expects to rely more on part-time faculty members this fall, however. Northeastern is losing a dozen tenured professors who landed jobs elsewhere. For now they will be replaced by adjuncts. Officials already eliminated 65 staff positions last year, and a universitywide hiring freeze is in place.

Ms. Hahs said the Illinois Board of Higher Education had also asked Northeastern to “keep an eye on” a number of low-enrollment academic programs.

Applications are up for the fall, but Ms. Hahs isn’t celebrating yet. “The key is going to be Illinois’s reputation — how big the damage is and whether these students who have been accepted actually do enroll,” she said. “It’s way too soon to determine that.”

Clarification (6/2/2016, 11:28 a.m.): An earlier version of this article described Illinois lawmakers as having covered colleges’ spending on grants to low-income students for the past academic year. The article has been updated to clarify the extent of that support, which covered roughly half the cost of those grants.

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.