MAP grants bill to Rauner; plights of EIU, CSU

The State Senate had joined the House in approving additional MAP grant funding. Alas, this bill is probably going nowhere as Republicans have been condemning it for failing to identify a funding source. Creative use of unspent money in a "special account" allowed everyone to get on board with the prior stopgap funding bill, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards this time around. So Rauner will likely veto the bill (after letting it languish on his desk for 60 days as he did with the AFSCME arbitration bill).

A rather pointed letter from EIU President David Glassman has been getting some play in state media. Glassman notes than in his 10 months on the job he's already reduced staffing at EIU by 22.6%. The stopgap funding bill will not avert further layoffs, he warns, which will come as soon as late July unless his school gets more funding. And as you might imagine, with over 20% of the staff laid off, remaining staffers are trying to do the work once done by others. Long-term results from this sort of sudden slashing in employee numbers are likely to be dismal.

Advice for the Governor

A photo from a colleague at NEIU, shared via EIU-UPI; faculty on both campuses are preparing for large rally in Chicago on April 1.

EIU Faculty Approve Pay Deferral; Administration Agrees

EIU faculty have voted to accept a union proposal to defer a substantial chunk of their last paychecks of this year to help EIU deal with the budget crisis. The EIU administration has agreed to abide by the terms of the plan, which will require that faculty be paid back out of 50% of any state funding (including for MAP grants) for FY 2016 or FY 2017.

Faculty earlier voted to reject a plan that made repayment contingent on standard state funding (minus MAP grants) for FY 2016. The approved plan also distributes cuts progressively, with higher paid faculty taking a larger cut. The EIU administration initially expressed some concerns about the new proposal, but seems to have decided to accept it once the faculty had done so.

The deal amounts to some $2 million.

Tuesday morning update

A local update on top; updates from Wisconsin, EIU, and SIUE after the break.

The DE has an article that does a nice job of summarizing President Dunn's interview with local news radio host Tom Miller. Highlights (most covered in the DE story) include the following:

•  We're "six to nine months" behind EIU, "particularly on the Carbondale campus". EIU has seen 177 layoffs and faculty are currently voting on a plan to defer $2 million in salary dollars until EIU sees an infusion of cash from the state. An update from EIU is below the break.
• Senate Bill 2059 is probably the only way universities are going to see money this year. Dunn noted that it passed the House with 70 votes, including one Republican (who represents Charleston, home of Western Illinois). It takes 71 votes to override a veto. Dunn suggested that Rauner can sit on the bill for 60 days before vetoing it, leading to a veto override attempt in late May.
• Cut programs on the Carbondale campus are likely to be cut for good, and would include many of things, introduced in the Delyte Morris era, that made SIUC into a nationally recognized research university. 
• Faculty with grants are looking to move elsewhere (see the story below on Wisconsin). 

Dunn seemed eager to convince people in the region that he isn't crying wolf (I'll note that's a legacy of past administrative exaggeration about budget cuts). When noting dire things on the horizon, he several times included the phrase "particularly on the Carbondale campus". This suggests what we might have guessed otherwise: we're in worse shape than SIUE. I suppose in parts that's because our research programs would be cut before revenue producing undergraduate programs go, in part it's because SIUE has seen enrollment gains in recent years.

EIU faculty voting on pay deferral

Faculty at Eastern Illinois (who are unionized under the UPI--AFT) have voted to rejected one plan to reduce their pay but are now considering a 'pay deferral' which would be paid back our of any FY 2017 funds allocated to EIU.

Late last week EIU faculty narrowly voted down a somewhat different administration proposal. The new proposal has higher paid faculty defer a higher percentage of their pay, and sets out clearer and more realistic terms to require the university to pay back the deferred salary. The new proposal would actually save EIU more money in the short term, though it clarifies that the savings are temporary, and would be paid back if EIU gets state funding for MAP grants or general appropriations for FY 2016 or FY 2017. 50% of any such payment would go to repaying faculty salaries. Under the old plan faculty would only have been compensated had FY 2016 funding come through from the state. Both plans would also extend the current EIU faculty contract by a year.

Deferred pay will amount to 5-7.5% of annual salary. That doesn't sound terribly severe, but as it has to be taken out of the last few paychecks of the year those paychecks will be much smaller (at least 20% smaller). The EIU administration has said that it would be $2 million short of making payroll through the end of this fiscal year (i.e., June 30); the deferred payment plan would save a bit more than this.