ISU President Larry Dietz says cutting state aid to the University as the Governor has proposed is equivalent to cutting more than 400 faculty and other workers. Governor Bruce Rauner wants to reduce state support for ISU by $23 million.
"We would not probably be able to get there through just natural attrition from our faculty and staff through this magnitude of cut. So there is a possibility that we would have nearly 400 other faculty and staff positions as an overall target."
And Dietz tells State Senators in an appropriations hearing he's reluctant to lay off professors.
"Well, we would try to protect that population because the faculty are the ones that teach the courses. I fully expect there would be more staff positions than faculty positions."
In reality, Dietz says the University would use a variety of strategies including tuition hikes, student aid cuts, course reductions, and layoffs to make up for the proposed 31.5% reduction in state funds.
"What we would do with any kind of cut is to look at each of these categories scale these down hopefully if the cut is not that large. So it's gonna be a combination of things. It won't be all tuition increase or all loss of jobs."
President Dietz painted worst case budget cut possibilities for State Senators considering higher education appropriations.
Dietz told the Senate Appropriations II Committee hearing the 31.5% reduction equates to a 14% tuition increase, or financial aid cuts for 600 of the neediest students, or eliminating a quarter of all classes.