The President of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale says without a state budget – or stop gap funding – drastic cuts will have to happen soon.
In a letter to the university, President Randy Dunn outlined what must happen in order to make ends meet. The plan includes asking the Board of Trustees to declare a “financial emergency,” cutting an additional 30-million dollars from SIU Carbondale’s budget and borrowing funds from Edwardsville to help Carbondale.
Dunn says all three are “last resort” options.
“Obviously, we’ve used all the unrestricted cash at SIUC. We’ve pulled down the unrestricted reserves at the school of medicine as far as we think we can take those. So we’ll be asking the Board for the authority to access the unrestricted cash reserves from SIU Edwardsville to help operate SIU Carbondale on a temporary basis until these cuts can be effectuated.”
Dunn says the university has swept more than 80-million dollars in unrestricted reserves so far this year, and the Carbondale campus already cut 20-million dollars.
SIU Edwardsville and the School of Medicine in Springfield will also see millions of dollars in cuts.
SIU and other public colleges and universities haven’t seen any state money since last year.
