SIU, other schools making cost-cutting plans

ST. LOUIS -- Southern Illinois University's president has warned its two campuses to brace for belt-tightening amid a dour economic outlook, joining the University of Illinois and other higher education providers nationwide in mulling contingency plans.

Glenn Poshard told the board of trustees Thursday that the university, with campuses in Carbondale and Edwardsville, should prepare for a seventh-straight year of declining state funding -- meaning possible layoffs, unpaid furloughs, and salary and hiring freezes.

Next year's state budget deficit is projected to be $9 billion, though educators and public officials hope it might be mitigated by federal help through President Barack Obama's massive, $790 billion economic stimulus plan that was being considered Friday by the Senate. It passed the House earlier in the day.

"We are in one of the worst revenue situations in our history," Poshard told the board, noting has asked chancellors of both campuses to prepare cost-cutting plans. "We've got to ask of everyone who works for this university to do their part in helping us be as efficient as we can be so that we don't have to cause people to lose their jobs."

University of Illinois President Joseph White told school leaders in Champaign last October to plan for economic adversity through early next year as the global financial crisis carried on. Two months later, the university's campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield announced cuts that included filling only essential campus personnel positions and delaying nonessential expenditures for equipment and travel.

"I would like for the University of Illinois not to add to the problem (with layoffs)," White told the editorial board of The Daily Illini student newspaper this week. "We need our people. I view this as a financial valley to get through while maintaining the quality of the university."

University of Illinois spokesman Mike Lillich said Friday a lot depends on how much state funding the system might expect -- an outlook that might become clearer when fledgling Gov. Pat Quinn gives his budget address March 18.

"Part of the problem is we don't know how much cuts will be," Lillich said. "There has been some discussion of a worst-case scenario as possibly including furloughs."

That's commonplace across the U.S. as colleges and universities big and small are "hunkered down and bracing," waiting for state funding situations to play out in coming months, said Pat Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

"No one knows what the magnitude of the reductions will be, and everyone is preparing for the absolute worst," Callan said. "Some of it is part of the budget poker game. It's hard to say what will happen, but all of these scenarios are being played out in an environment of great uncertainty."

In Carbondale, Poshard said he has asked the university's upper-level administrators to forgo annual cost-of-living raises and has told chancellors to consider pressing similar moves at the campus level for administrators making more than $100,000.

Poshard also plans to meet with union leaders and representatives to discuss the prospect and procedures for layoffs and furloughs. A freeze on administrative positions also may be adopted, nonessential travel eliminated and equipment purchases deferred, he said.

SIU Chancellor Sam Goldman said firing people would be the university's last resort, though jettisoning some graduate assistant jobs could be an option despite worries that could cut the campus' enrollment.

On the same day Poshard offered a dismal forecast, the trustees signed off on nearly $30 million in funding toward the university's ambitious Saluki Way project, which includes a new football stadium and renovations to the Carbondale school's basketball arena. Groundbreaking is scheduled for early next month.

Poshard defended the construction spending, noting the university managed to save $9 million to $10 million in the first round of bidding "because with the economy being down these construction companies want work" at a lesser cost.

He called on-campus construction projects vital in providing area jobs; nearly $20 million of the contracts awarded Thursday were to local contractors.