About a dozen college and university officials gathered at the capitol today to remind lawmakers of the desperate situation schools find themselves in, Most have gone for a year with less than a third of expected state funds.
The coalition included presidents of institutions as enormous as the University of Illinois System and as small as the private liberal arts school Illinois College in Jacksonville, whose president warned that state funds need to come quickly.
"This is a horrible, perilous situation for both privates and publics, because we can go some of us for a little bit of time, but my message to the legislators and the governor is: Don't take us for granted."
Barbara Farley went on to say schools still need the money owed by the state for the soon to expire fiscal year plus a budget for the new year, which begins on Friday.
Lawmakers will return to the statehouse tomorrow to consider several stop-gap funding proposals. Governor Bruce Rauner favors a plan that would give higher education institutions a total of 1 billion dollars to keep them open through the fall.
