Dozens of Chicago State University students and faculty members rallied Monday in the Loop to protest the eight-month budget standoff in Springfield that could force the South Side institution to shut down before the end of the semester.
In a brief demonstration at the Thompson Center and on LaSalle Street, students demanded that Springfield end what they called a “political game of chess” and free up funding that Chicago State and other higher-education institutions rely on to operate.
Public universities and colleges have been without state funding since July 1, when Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed an unbalanced spending plan endorsed by the legislature.
About 4,500 students are enrolled at Chicago State. Most are minorities.
Many students pointed to Chicago State’s location in the Roseland neighborhood as “an oasis in a desert.” They said allowing the institution to fail would take away more than opportunities and services for those fighting to break cycles of poverty, violence and disenfranchisement.
“(Chicago State) gives people with low income a chance at education, a chance at life,” said Charles Preston, a senior majoring in African-American Studies. “So when politicians play political chess, they’re not just withholding funds, they’re withholding lives, they’re withholding futures. I shouldn’t have to protest for the state legislature to sign a budget.”
“They tell us, ‘Get out of the street. Further your education. Do what needs to be done to make a better life for you and your family,'” said Daniel X. Jones, a freshman studying physics and engineering. “As soon as we get to what they told us to do, now they’re saying there’s a budget crisis. It’s a big mess and it’s all based on ‘politricks.'”
Chicago State University President Thomas Calhoun Jr. has declined to set a date when the 148-year-old university would run out of money to pay its employees, but university officials previously indicated it could be as soon as March.
Chicago State isn’t the only institution facing severe trouble because of stymied state funding. But unlike flagship University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, CSU does not have a massive endowment to lean on when public dollars are not available. Nearly one-third of Chicago State funding comes from Springfield.
Chicago State trustees last week unanimously declared the school to be in “a universitywide state of financial exigency.” That formal designation allows the school to go the last-resort route for cutting costs: dismissing faculty.
“We are all very nervous and anxious but we also have faith that our doors will not close,” said Paris Griffin, president of the Student Government Association. “It is an injustice to allow our doors to close. I’m confident that something has to happen.”
“We’re not asking for reform, we’re not asking for revolution,” Preston said. “We’re asking (legislators) to do their basic duty: sign a budget.”
Last week, the Higher Learning Commission directed all Illinois public colleges and universities to create an emergency plan should they be forced to close. Even if a university had to shut down educational programs, it would need to continue helping students receive transcripts and transfer to other schools. HLC officials informed Springfield that institutions could lose their accreditation if they did not detail comprehensive emergency procedures.
Losing accreditation is a death knell for institutions because it means course credits could not be transferred to another school and students would be ineligible for federal student aid.
For graduate students such as Michael Weigand, jumping to another school is not a viable option.
“Right now, we can’t go anywhere else,” said Weigand, who is studying occupational therapy at Chicago State. “We’ve already invested tens of thousands of dollars. We can’t go anywhere else and we don’t want to go anywhere else. We’re not asking for anything fancy. We just want to go to school.”
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