Statement Posted on the Governor’s Budget Website
The current proposal to cut an additional 15% from higher education will threaten the quality and the affordability of higher education in the state of Illinois – especially since this cut follows years of state budget cuts. Currently, the state only contributes 16% to the budget of the university system. In 1990, it contributed nearly half. We teach more students now than we did then, and we offer the citizens of Illinois one of the best systems of public education in the country. The University of Illinois system, however, is under threat in three main areas.
1) After years of budget cuts and threatened additional cuts for next year, the excellence of the university system is at risk. Faculty numbers are dwindling (in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences our faculty numbers have dwindled from approximately 600 in 1992 to about 336 now), programs are being cut, whole departments may be eliminated, and fewer courses will be offered. Students will also see larger class sizes and fewer support programs. The opportunities for research and development in the state will decline, even as the state’s system of higher education prepares fewer trained professionals for careers in medicine, technology, law, and government. This will lead to a less prepared work force, which puts our entire state at risk.
2) Tuition increases have necessarily gone hand in hand with the decline in State support. A 15% cut in State appropriations will only force the universities to raise tuition, and such increases threaten to cut off the promise of a superior higher education to many. With the cost of private education increasingly out of reach for many, public institutions provide a crucial means of access to higher education for a large proportion of the population, and especially for poor, minority, and first-generation students. Yet the increases in tuition will prevent many from gaining a university diploma.
3) The University of Illinois has the largest and one of the most diverse medical schools in the country. Playing a critical role in Illinois healthcare, UIC operates six health sciences colleges and the state’s major public medical center and serves as the principal educator of Illinois’ physicians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses and other health care professionals. Approximately one in six Illinois physicians, 44% of the state’s dentists and a third of the state’s pharmacists are alumni of UIC health sciences colleges. UIC’s Medical Center and clinics combine to serve more than 600,000 patients visits a year. Lack of state funding severely jeopardizes our mission to provide outstanding medical services, research and education. It is further noteworthy that we are the largest provider of Medicaid hospital days in the state. Moreover, while several private hospitals were allocated millions of dollars in the last State capital spending bill, UIC Medical Center was not.
In closing, it is important to realize the cuts to the budget of UIC will have a negative ripple effect throughout the economy of the state as a whole. UIC is among Chicago’s top 20 employers. UIC has significant current spending that directly aids the economy of the state. Moreover, that spending flows through the economy and generates additional spending by the recipients. The total direct spending is $1.8 billion, but the ripple effect of these funds leads to total spending in our economy from both the direct effect and an indirect effect; the combined economic impact is $7.3 billion annually.
Cutting higher education in the State of Illinois will have a myriad of bad consequences, and we urge you to support the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sincerely,
Concerned Faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago
For more information on the budgetary threats and their consequences, please see http://uicjointfurlough.wordpress.com/
For information on a planned joint furlough day and a list of people who support it, please see: http://uicjointfurlough.wordpress.com/jointfurlough/who-we-are/
