Emergency funds approved last week by Illinois lawmakers after public colleges had gone almost the whole academic year without state money did not avert layoffs at Chicago State University, which let go more than 300 employees on Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported. That number represents one-third of the university’s staff. No faculty positions were affected — in this round of cuts, Chicago State’s president, Thomas J. Calhoun Jr., told the Tribune.
Illinois’s state-budget impasse has hit Chicago State, a predominantly African-American institution, especially hard, as more than 30 percent of its budget came from state funding, the highest share of any public college there. The university declared financial exigency in February and announced that it would end its semester early so that students could finish the academic year before the money ran out. “We have enough cash to make payroll through April 30, and then the operating dollars are no longer sufficient,” a university spokesman told the Tribune in March.
College leaders in the state had pleaded with lawmakers to come to an agreement to avoid more financial fallout, and last week the legislature approved $600 million in short-term higher-education funding, $20 million of it for Chicago State, according to the Tribune. But that was less than 60 percent of what the university had expected to receive this fiscal year, and some of it needed to go toward outstanding bills. “As much as we appreciated getting it,” Mr. Calhoun told the Tribune, “it was less than what we needed and later than we needed it.”
The layoffs will touch every area of the university, the president said — administrators, police officers, counselors, and carpenters. Chicago State had put all 900 employees on notice in February, instructing them not to return to work after April 30 unless specifically notified, or “recalled.” The recall process will continue through the weekend, Mr. Calhoun told the Tribune. Faculty members’ annual contracts end on May 15, and “there is a likelihood that not all faculty will be recalled,” he said.
Chicago State has been beset in recent years with myriad financial problems and leadership controversies. The current situation is “dreadful,” the president told the Tribune, but not dire: “It is not disheartening for the future of the university. The university has been here 150 years and will continue to be here.”
Other public colleges in the state have also made cuts. Eastern Illinois University laid off 177 employees; Western Illinois University cut 147 positions, including 30 faculty jobs; and Northeastern Illinois University eliminated 65 staff positions. Northern Illinois University has left more than 100 jobs unfilled this academic year.
