Stopgap can’t stop massive CSU layoffs
Monday, May 2, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
Threats of mass layoffs that had hung over the state’s only university serving a predominantly minority, low-income student population became reality Friday, as Chicago State let go 300 employees.
The layoffs, effective April 30th, trimmed just over a third — 35 percent — of Chicago State University’s administrative and non-faculty staff, sources said.
The move comes a week after CSU, which has been hardest hit by the higher-education crisis triggered by the state’s historic budget impasse, received $20.1 million from a long-stalled $600 million emergency funding bill for public universities finally agreed upon by the legislature and governor. […]
“Our monthly payroll is approximately $5 million, and our goal is to get to about half of that,” the CSU source said about Friday’s layoffs, which will save about $2 million a month. “We’re thankful for the money we received but because we don’t know when we will get the rest of it, we’re going to live with what we have.”
* Tribune…
The cuts will save about 40 percent in payroll costs, or about $2 million a month, Calhoun said. They come after Chicago State and other Illinois schools went nearly the entire academic year without state money as lawmakers were unable to agree on a budget. Last week, lawmakers approved $20.1 million in emergency funding for Chicago State, part of a larger funding package for public universities, but it proved to be too little, too late.
State lawmakers approve funding to keep universities afloat through summer. […]
While the cash influx provided some relief, it was not enough to prevent the layoffs. Some of the money needs to go toward outstanding vendor bills. The university also has to prepare for a tenuous future, with uncertainty about student enrollment this fall and continued questions about if and when the state will approve more funding. […]
“I do expect there is a likelihood that not all faculty will be recalled,” [Chicago State President Thomas Calhoun Jr.] said. He also said the university will close some buildings this summer to reduce utility and maintenance costs and will evaluate academic programs, a routine process that will involve more scrutiny this year because of the fiscal situation.
“There are those kinds of tough decisions that certainly will be made as we go through this program review process,” Calhoun said.
* Meanwhile, the AP has a profile of CSU…
The student body doesn’t look like those found at the other state universities. Three-quarters of the students are black and almost three-quarters are women. More than half are 25 or older and many, if not most, have transferred from other schools after struggling elsewhere.
“I’ve seen lots of them come unprepared for college work,” said Robert Bionaz, an associate professor of history. “These are bright people who in many cases have seen life intervene.” […]
But the campus tucked into a part of the city with chronically high levels of unemployment and crime represents a chance, sometimes the last chance, for many students.
“Honestly, this is like people’s last resort, last choice,” said Denzel Tucker, a senior physics major who transferred to Chicago State from the Illinois Institute of Technology, where a year of tuition is more than $40,000. Chicago State charges $6,000 a year.
- SAP - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 12:03 pm:
Yet another way of saying: “We need a real budget.”
- Norseman - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 12:07 pm:
SAP +1
- Mattman - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 12:13 pm:
Who is next? EIU? WIU? What a sad state our state has become. Years and years of ruinous fiscal mis-management now bearing fruit. Congrats Ryan. Congrats Blago. Congrats Quinn. Congrats Madigan. Congrats Rauner. This is your Illinois. This is your legacy.
- Just Me - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 12:30 pm:
Sort of reminds me of when Sears got their tax break but still laid off employees around the region. Legislators went crazy mad even though the tax break was for corporate and the layoffs were for individual stores, but that was a detail legislators didn’t care about.
- Anon - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 12:48 pm:
How long can Chicago State University remain viable? It is meant to be serve a student body of 12,000, but it has about 4,000 left (enrollment tanked under the last scandal plagued university administration). CSU has to cut its administrative staff which was top heavy to begin with.
If enrollment continues to plunge, CSU may have to close.
- Rich Miller - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 12:55 pm:
===enrollment tanked under the last scandal plagued university administration==
Actually, they got rid of a lot of students who were just taking a class or two a year. But, keep up the teachers union talking points.
- Anon - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 1:04 pm:
A decline from 9,000 enrolled to 4,000 is progress or right sizing the university?
Keep defending the old regime. The circuit and appellate court took a different view of the former CSU president.
- Because I said so.... - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 1:18 pm:
There is no question that CSU is serving an important constituency and needs to be funded as do all the other public universities.
The years of special treatment given to CSU has not proven to help them over the long run. They were artificially propped up and now are being forced to stand on shaky legs. But they do have a new President who is trying very hard to turn things around.
I hate to see anyone lose their job but given the actual enrollment at CSU, some jobs needed to be eliminated.
Regardless, the budget impasse and lack of funding to higher ed is doing permanent damage to all our public universities. It’s time to end this madness now!
- ArchPundit - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 1:35 pm:
“A decline from 9,000 enrolled to 4,000 is progress or right sizing the university?”
What’s is the FTE difference?
- Precinct Captain - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 2:05 pm:
==CSU has to cut its administrative staff==
Please read the post.
- RIJ (formerly PolPal56) - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 2:20 pm:
CSU’s highest recent FTE was 7362 in 2010, and for this year, 4767. Easily found on the CSU website.
- RIJ - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 2:23 pm:
The drop in graduate FTE was about 20%. Larger losses on the undergrad side.
- Rod - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 2:30 pm:
The Tribune actually did state something very truthful in its article about the layoffs at Chicago State, that the limited funding provided by the General Assembly was “too little, too late.” In some ways, this is exactly what Governor Rauner wanted.
The Governor has called on state universities to cut administrative costs and curtail their spending on goods and services to increase efficiency. While the Governor’s staff and his supporters must feel pretty good about these cuts at CSU, at this point they have to remain restrained in their comments for fear of a backlash.
Eventually however, I believe the Governor will effectively say, I told you so. CSU, SIU, WIU, etc are bloated with staff and will do just fine with fewer people. The Governor’s firm GTCR following acquisitions often looked to reduce staff at the firms so he is following his standard operating procedure in reducing costs as Governor even though it’s been through a long and winding process.
- Old and In the Way - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 2:52 pm:
Rod
If the governor wanted to reduce administrative costs this is an incredibly inefficient way of doing it! Not only are the supposedly bloated administrations in charge of the cuts but about 90% of the cuts have been outside of administration! Your comment would seem to indicate you have little or no understanding or insight as to what is actually happening at these institutions and the communities and regions they serve. In so much as you are ignorant of the circumstances and their impact on people you’re pretty much in the same boat as the governor.
- Qui Tam - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 3:05 pm:
Anon +1
=Keep defending the old regime. The circuit and appellate court took a different view of the former CSU president.=
But CSU fought to the end to defend its misconduct!
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 5:23 pm:
Yes, Old and In the Way, this is not a very cost-efficient way to downsize institutions.
Do you think the GOP cares more about maximizing cuts or optimizing the cuts?
Yeah, me too.
The “Squeeze the Beast” approach assumes that no matter how fast you cut spending, as soon as the system reaches its new “total revenue available”, activities will just kind of re-arrange themselves in the way that is most efficient.
Think of it this way: frost bite is the result of your body’s reaction to the shortage of an important resource: Heat. Your body reorganizes to redirect the flow of blood away from extremities that loose heat even more quickly, preserving core body temp.
Of course, eventually your fingers die.
- peon - Monday, May 2, 16 @ 8:14 pm:
The easy casual way in which this budget damage has been inflicted on CSU is quite incredible. If the Governor wants to change any public institution he has many powers through their boards. But this harm is without thought or concern.