Friday, May 18, 2018

Illinois public universities can’t get past the lingering effects of state budget crisis - Rich Miller, Chicago Sun Times

Eastern Illinois University’s legislative liaison Katie Anselment had some strong words for legislators during an Illinois Senate Higher Education Committee hearing last week. Anselment testified against a bill that would create a pilot program to allow a Downstate community college to offer nursing bachelor’s degrees. And then, later in her testimony, Anselment had a mic-drop moment: “At a time when public universities are being admonished to up our enrollments despite declining numbers of high school graduates, to identify and implement more efficiencies in our operations, to focus on what we do best and to consider eliminating duplicative offerings, this bill sets the stage for opening up 48 new taxpayer-funded competitors in a state that has recently proven unable to reliably support the nine universities it already has.” https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/public-universities-cant-get-past-the-lingering-effects-of-state-budget-crisis/