Public colleges throughout Illinois have been hit hard by a budget standoff that has prevented them from getting any state money for the better part of a year. But perhaps no institution has been hit harder than Chicago State University.
Chicago State made the unusual move of asking students and employees to hand in their keys to campus buildings and offices — a request it later walked back — as it prepares “for possible widespread layoffs to begin as early as April 30,” the Chicago Tribune reported this week.
That was just the latest sign of woe for a university that has declared financial exigency and announced that it would end its semester early as a result of the deadlock between Gov. Bruce V. Rauner, a Republican, and the Democrat-controlled legislature.
Even before the current budget crisis, Chicago State wasn’t exactly in a position of strength. Its president, Thomas J. Calhoun Jr., has been in the job for less than a year. The tenure of his immediate past predecessor, Wayne D. Watson, included a 2013 effort to push him out of office and a state audit finding the university had lost $3.8-million in equipment, among other controversies.
Chicago State plays a unique role among public colleges in Illinois, and the budget stalemate has dealt a particularly tough blow to the university. Here are some of the reasons why.
What role does Chicago State play in Illinois?
The university draws many of its students from its neighborhood, the South Side of Chicago. Nearly three-quarters of its undergraduates are African-American, according to federal data. Seventy-one percent receive federal Pell Grants, which go to low-income students. Fifty-seven percent are age 25 or older. Thirty-six percent are enrolled part time.
“Those are the exact students we need to get into college and help graduate,” said Thomas L. Harnisch, director of state relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
Not only does Chicago State draw students from the South Side, it offers the only public, four-year option readily available to the people who live there. “It is in some ways the only institution serving that niche,” said Jennifer Delaney, an associate professor of education policy, organization, and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The city has other four-year institutions that provide access, Ms. Delaney said, but not in the far South Side. “Making that crosstown commute,” she said, “it’s not an easy thing if you are low-income and place bound.”
Why has Chicago State been so deeply affected by the budget standoff?
As far as colleges are concerned, the state’s inability to pass a budget translates into a 100-percent funding cut, Ms. Delaney said.
And that lack of support squeezes regional public institutions especially hard because they don’t usually get much from other revenue streams, like big donors or out-of-state enrollment, that flagship universities can turn to, Mr. Harnisch said.
Nearly 32 percent of Chicago State’s budget comes from state funding, the highest share of any public college in the state, according to Jim Applegate, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
Because it enrolls a financially needy student body, the university also gets significant funds from the state’s Monetary Award Program, which awards need-based grants. The MAP money is also held up in the budget negotiation.
Last year 2,123 of the university’s students received MAP aid, totaling around $5.5-million, said Lynne Baker, managing director of communications for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, in an email. Even more students would have gotten the aid, but MAP is awarded first come first served and the money runs out before the need for it does.
On top of that, Chicago State’s enrollment has dropped, reducing tuition revenue, Ms. Delaney said.
What is at risk for Chicago State and its community?
Things look pretty grim for students at the regional public colleges if the money they rely on doesn’t come through soon, Mr. Applegate said. “When these students can’t go to these institutions, they don’t go. It’s either this, or no college,” he said. “It’s not like they can pick up and have their parents drive them to Wisconsin.”
Given its predicament, Chicago State probably can’t do much to help its students navigate their own challenges, said Debra Bragg, a professor emerita of education policy, organization, and leadership at Urbana-Champaign. “It is not as though they can add counselors and resources right now,” she said.
The university and its students aren’t the only ones who stand to lose here, Ms. Bragg added. “It’s very important to the state of Illinois to prepare these students to live and work in the area where they reside,” she said. “These are really important citizens of our state.”
Beckie Supiano writes about college affordability, the job market for new graduates, and professional schools, among other things. Follow her on Twitter @becksup, or drop her a line at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
