Maker of racist video nabbed

The Southern reports that SIU police, working with FBI, have identified the guy who put out the racist video in the lead up to the May 2 "strike". He's from outside of Chicago, has no affiliation to the fraternity he tried to drag into things, and no affiliation to the groups that led the protests. So this is good news, it seems to me. It was just some jerk out there who wanted to make a splash. This doesn't mean there isn't racism on campus, of course, but let's count our blessings: this wasn't an SIU student, and thank goodness it wasn't a SIU fraternity.

I'd also count the continuing failure to nab the graffiti 'artists' who painted Faner as a blessing, to be frank. I would not have used paint where chalk (or washable paint) would do, or said something about a riot--but the crime here was pretty trivial, the bulk the message was worth spreading (student debt), and the zealous efforts to go after the perpetrators has always seemed a bit over the top to me.

Illinois Atlas of Austerity

UIUC geography student Melissa Heil has put together an impressive website offering graphics depicting the effects the budget impasse. The Champaign News-Gazette has a story given some background on her efforts.

I paste below what was one of her more striking graphics, one showing how many students eligible for state MAP grants did not get them even before the crisis. According to her figures, 125,000 students were funded on this program last year, but the state paid for less than half of those students with the stop-gap spending bill, with universities fronting the money otherwise (leaving it uncertain in some cases whether students will have to pay their MAP grants back as if they were loans).

Tastefully hidden after the break, a quick update on non-happenings in Springfield.

Program Prioritization

Here's my feedback on the draft report of the faculty Joint Task Force on Program Prioritization.

I do encourage comments, both on this blog and, rather more importantly directly to Mike Eichholz, the co-chair of the committee, who is soliciting comments. (Yes, that's the same Mike Eichholz familiar to old-time readers of this blog as the founder of the Faculty for Sensible Negotiations.) SIUC faculty received an email on this on June 2, including the document itself and a call for comments. My opening praise below wasn't meant as just fluff: this is a serious effort at a very difficult task. I am certainly full of trepidation about what 'prioritization' will result in here, but that's not so much because of this report but in spite of it.

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Dear Mike,

First, thanks to you and your colleagues for all your hard work on this document. The result is pretty impressive as academic documents go: clearly written, balanced, intelligent. These comments aren't meant to be solely critical; to some extent they are just observations on things I found somewhat striking about the process as you all envisage it.

1. The plan may rank chairs rather than programs.
2. The plan suggests a partial and somewhat muddled vision for SIUC. 
3. The plan prioritizes quality over mission.

"Higher Education in Illinois is Dying"

The NY Times published an op-ed on the plight of public universities in Illinois. Not much new or substantive to it, but every bit helps, and I suppose I can't quarrel with the headline.
 

Randy Dunn put out an update on the budgetary situation today. He gives a very full account of recent legislative moves--almost all of which have been abortive. Dunn suspects, in the end, that the state will come up with some sort of stopgap funding bill to see state government stays open through the election. Presumably, then, SIU is planning on that basis--the assumption we'll get some FY 17 funding from the state before too long, but no firm commitment for the whole year until after the election at the earliest.

There isn't much news in his update. For Carbondale, though, there is a little something . . .

While the School of Medicine and SIUE have identified and are operationalizing the level of reductions necessary to carry them well into FY17, the Carbondale campus is now finalizing recurring reductions - beyond that first round of about $13.5 million in cuts put in place a year ago to get through FY16 (or so we hoped at the time). Any additional reductions for SIUC heading into the new school year will be announced at the campus level once decisions are reached.

These are presumably the cuts planned for in the various college level plans to cut something like 12.5% from budgets. Then there's this:

As has become our mantra across the system at this point, the goal of "protecting the core" or "holding the center" of 1) viable academic degree and academic support programs, 2) critical student services, 3) essential clinical and outreach efforts, and 4) campus asset preservation will remain paramount as we go into these uncharted budgetary waters in the months ahead.

"Viable" is nice--of course a fairly large proportion of our programs won't be viable, by a number of definitions, given years of cuts. At any rate, look for news on SIUC cuts fairly soon, I would think. Those cuts will presumably be based largely on who can be cut in a hurry without declaring financial exigency--at this point, that would mean lots of NTT cuts. Those cuts will impact programs (and people) inequitably. Strong program, weak program, essential program, inessential program--no matter, all that would matter is how many NTT you have. Not the smartest way to run a university, even within the constraints imposed by the chaos in Springfield. Let me hasten to add that I have no inside information on this . . . 

Presumably the prioritization plan will come into play at some point here, but there are weeks (if not months) to go before it would take effect, as it should be reviewed by Faculty Senate and Grad Council, in addition to the open comment period by faculty announced in the email about it we received earlier this week. Then it will take a good deal of time to compile the data and reports called for in the plan--a massive undertaking requiring unprecedented levels of detailed data on research and creative work--quite substantial written reports from chairs, etc.

More on that plan fairly soon, if anyone's out there . . .