What does the crisis mean?
Featured Opinion
Gregory Royal Pratt
Issue date: 3/8/10 Section: Opinions
The introduction
Administrators couch the university's budget crisis in terms of money. It's important to think about in terms of people. Students. Opportunities gained and lost.
To that end, we have invited several members of our community to talk about the crisis in frank and personal terms.
Public higher education is at risk: if we continue down this path of diminished state funding, the University of Illinois will become a de facto private school. The poor in Chicago will lose out on affordable and accessible higher education. Future students will have to pay more money for less quality and fewer options. One thing to keep in mind is that much damage has already been done. The University of Illinois will feel the state's inaction to this point for a few years, at least. But the worst is yet to come if the state does not begin to meet its obligations.
The last straw
By Dick Simpson
Head of Department of Political Science
After years of budget cuts, the excellence of UIC is at risk. An additional 15% cut in State appropriations next year will only force UIC to raise tuition and student fees much higher.
In response, nearly 300 UIC faculty and staff are taking a joint furlough day on Monday, March 8th. We will be meeting with the governor's staff, aldermen who represent the university, the media, the newspaper editorial boards, and state legislators. We are seeking to get the State of Illinois to pay the more than $400 million that it owes us. We are seeking a higher priority for higher education in next year's state budget.
This battle is the largest mobilization of faculty and students since the campus was closed down by protests after the Kent State shootings in 1970. Our joint furlough is unprecedented in the history of our university. We are fighting to save public higher education in Illinois, but especially UIC. Join us. Contact your legislator and governor by phone, letter, and in person. Do it today.
The undergraduates
By Robert Gordon
Head of the Chemistry Department
The budget shortfall is the most serious crisis I have experienced in my 36 years at UIC. The people who stand to lose the most are the undergraduates. Our students chose UIC because of the excellent instruction provided by the faculty. Many of our undergraduates take advantage of research opportunities that are unavailable at most four-year institutions. If the State does not restore the funds promised to the university, these advantages will vanish. Tuition will rise, class sizes will increase, and the best faculty members will leave. For all of these reasons, I hope the students will join the faculty in reaching out to our state legislators and try to convince them to fulfill their commitments to UIC.
The grad students
By Henri Gillet
Dean of the Graduate College
Graduate education is particularly vulnerable to cuts in state support. More specifically, the Graduate College does not receive tuition dollars, so as state funding for UIC is reduced it will become harder to for us to provide graduate fellowships. I am particularly concerned about the impact this will have on graduate students from minority groups. For example, this year the University stepped in and made up the difference when the State substantially cut stipends for students in a fellowship program for minority graduate students. I fear that it will be difficult for UIC to do this again.
The transformative power of education
By Alfred Thomas
Professor of English and Germanic Studies
I was born into a working-class family in Manchester, England, and went to a local grammar school. Like most of our students, I was a first-generation college student. If it hadn't been for generous state funding, I would never have been able to get a higher education and go on to become a professor at an American university. Our students are our greatest resource. If the State of Illinois turns its back on them by failing to provide the money it owes, it's also turning its back on the future of the country and betraying its own hard-won principles of freedom and equality.
The lucky student
By Juliette Cardenas
UIC student, prospective teacher
During my time at UIC, I have been blessed with amazing professors. It is because of my professors that I have learned the importance and the power of my own education. Many opportunities have been presented to me during my time here, and I would not have been able to qualify for those opportunities if it were not for the preparation I have received through the classes I enrolled in. It would be a shame if the future students of UIC would not receive the same quality of education that I have received so far.
Diversity at-risk
By Liz Thomson
Interim Director of the Gender and Sexuality Center
Any permanent budget cut to the Gender & Sexuality Center (GSC) significantly lessens the education, health, and safety of all students, faculty, and staff, but specifically those at most risk- those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and ally (LGBTQA). The GSC is already very "lean" in its operations, and we do not have an institutional method of generating revenue. The LGBTQA education, outreach, research and support we provide or facilitate contributes to student recruitment, retention, academic success, and engaged alumni.
The terminal contract
By James Knell
Graduate advisor
To me, the budget crisis means a Terminal Contract.
That means 12 months to find a new job.
Since there is a hiring freeze that means choosing to work for a private college or leave the state.
It also means leaving the graduate students that I recruited to my program to uncertain fates.
It means walking away from a program I have spent eight years helping to build.
In such situations you have to make the choice between fighting or fleeing. UIC is a good place, so I say fight!
The little engine that won't be able to
By James Thompson
Head of Public Administration, in CUPPA
It is extraordinarily short-sighted for the state to cut funding to its universities. Universities are engines of economic development; they bring in research and tuition dollars from outside the state and they are seedbeds of innovation and industry.
Administrators couch the university's budget crisis in terms of money. It's important to think about in terms of people. Students. Opportunities gained and lost.
To that end, we have invited several members of our community to talk about the crisis in frank and personal terms.
Public higher education is at risk: if we continue down this path of diminished state funding, the University of Illinois will become a de facto private school. The poor in Chicago will lose out on affordable and accessible higher education. Future students will have to pay more money for less quality and fewer options. One thing to keep in mind is that much damage has already been done. The University of Illinois will feel the state's inaction to this point for a few years, at least. But the worst is yet to come if the state does not begin to meet its obligations.
The last straw
By Dick Simpson
Head of Department of Political Science
After years of budget cuts, the excellence of UIC is at risk. An additional 15% cut in State appropriations next year will only force UIC to raise tuition and student fees much higher.
In response, nearly 300 UIC faculty and staff are taking a joint furlough day on Monday, March 8th. We will be meeting with the governor's staff, aldermen who represent the university, the media, the newspaper editorial boards, and state legislators. We are seeking to get the State of Illinois to pay the more than $400 million that it owes us. We are seeking a higher priority for higher education in next year's state budget.
This battle is the largest mobilization of faculty and students since the campus was closed down by protests after the Kent State shootings in 1970. Our joint furlough is unprecedented in the history of our university. We are fighting to save public higher education in Illinois, but especially UIC. Join us. Contact your legislator and governor by phone, letter, and in person. Do it today.
The undergraduates
By Robert Gordon
Head of the Chemistry Department
The budget shortfall is the most serious crisis I have experienced in my 36 years at UIC. The people who stand to lose the most are the undergraduates. Our students chose UIC because of the excellent instruction provided by the faculty. Many of our undergraduates take advantage of research opportunities that are unavailable at most four-year institutions. If the State does not restore the funds promised to the university, these advantages will vanish. Tuition will rise, class sizes will increase, and the best faculty members will leave. For all of these reasons, I hope the students will join the faculty in reaching out to our state legislators and try to convince them to fulfill their commitments to UIC.
The grad students
By Henri Gillet
Dean of the Graduate College
Graduate education is particularly vulnerable to cuts in state support. More specifically, the Graduate College does not receive tuition dollars, so as state funding for UIC is reduced it will become harder to for us to provide graduate fellowships. I am particularly concerned about the impact this will have on graduate students from minority groups. For example, this year the University stepped in and made up the difference when the State substantially cut stipends for students in a fellowship program for minority graduate students. I fear that it will be difficult for UIC to do this again.
The transformative power of education
By Alfred Thomas
Professor of English and Germanic Studies
I was born into a working-class family in Manchester, England, and went to a local grammar school. Like most of our students, I was a first-generation college student. If it hadn't been for generous state funding, I would never have been able to get a higher education and go on to become a professor at an American university. Our students are our greatest resource. If the State of Illinois turns its back on them by failing to provide the money it owes, it's also turning its back on the future of the country and betraying its own hard-won principles of freedom and equality.
The lucky student
By Juliette Cardenas
UIC student, prospective teacher
During my time at UIC, I have been blessed with amazing professors. It is because of my professors that I have learned the importance and the power of my own education. Many opportunities have been presented to me during my time here, and I would not have been able to qualify for those opportunities if it were not for the preparation I have received through the classes I enrolled in. It would be a shame if the future students of UIC would not receive the same quality of education that I have received so far.
Diversity at-risk
By Liz Thomson
Interim Director of the Gender and Sexuality Center
Any permanent budget cut to the Gender & Sexuality Center (GSC) significantly lessens the education, health, and safety of all students, faculty, and staff, but specifically those at most risk- those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and ally (LGBTQA). The GSC is already very "lean" in its operations, and we do not have an institutional method of generating revenue. The LGBTQA education, outreach, research and support we provide or facilitate contributes to student recruitment, retention, academic success, and engaged alumni.
The terminal contract
By James Knell
Graduate advisor
To me, the budget crisis means a Terminal Contract.
That means 12 months to find a new job.
Since there is a hiring freeze that means choosing to work for a private college or leave the state.
It also means leaving the graduate students that I recruited to my program to uncertain fates.
It means walking away from a program I have spent eight years helping to build.
In such situations you have to make the choice between fighting or fleeing. UIC is a good place, so I say fight!
The little engine that won't be able to
By James Thompson
Head of Public Administration, in CUPPA
It is extraordinarily short-sighted for the state to cut funding to its universities. Universities are engines of economic development; they bring in research and tuition dollars from outside the state and they are seedbeds of innovation and industry.
Be the first to comment on this story