There are many ways to track the toll of the state’s nearly two-year-old budget standoff. Illinois Public Radio’s David Mercer reports for public universities that is often meaning job cuts.
Since the state last had a budget, in 2015, those dozen campuses have cut their payrolls by about 2,400 through layoffs and attrition.
No school has been hit harder than Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Paul McCann is Eastern’s vice president of business affairs. He says, “we’ve cut about 440 positions from the university.” MaCann says some employees now have to do more than one job.
Spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith says Southern Illinois University in Carbondale has laid off 86 people and cut another 313 positions. Many are maintenance-related. “What you’re likely to see there, behind the scenes, it’s going to take longer to get things done if something’s broken, if something needs to be fixed.”
Only Illinois State University and the University of Illinois have not laid off employees. But they have about 500 unfilled jobs between them.