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The campaign framing of the higher education debate

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Illinois

* From a BN-D article about the potential split between SIU’s Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses…

Gov. Bruce Rauner said he was “very supportive of both campuses.”

“There are a lot of discussions underway,” he said. “I want just to make sure SIU in Carbondale and SIU in Edwardsville do exceptional work and continue to get great support … Whether they’re together or separate, I want to make sure they thrive and continue to do an outstanding job.”

J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic nominee challenging Rauner in the coming election, said that under Rauner, many students have left the state or chosen not to attend in Illinois because of “the dysfunction in our higher education system because Bruce Rauner has failed to fund it.”

“One of the reasons we’ve had to look at making changes in the university system is because Bruce Rauner has driven faculty out and driven students out,” Pritzker said. “Again, the principle behind whatever decision gets made here ought to be what’s best for the future of building up our universities, not tearing them down.”

BN-D video of Gov. Rauner’s full remarks is here.

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, May 11, 18 @ 10:37 am

Comments

Clearly Rauner has failed on this issue, as he has on most issues.

Its hard to comment on what JB said, because he didn’t say much other than Rauner is bad.

I like that he wants to fund higher ed better. Considering the pension shortfalls and his other proposed spending, I don’t think he will make significant improvements to higher ed, even with a tax increase, pot revenues, etc.

Comment by AndyIllini Friday, May 11, 18 @ 10:43 am
–Gov. Bruce Rauner said he was “very supportive of both campuses.”–

LOL, not so you’d notice. In English, “Social Darwinism” is not synonymous with “very supportive.”

One of the creepy things about Rauner is that his words are often in direct opposition to his actions. Like he knows that he’s doing bad things, so he just says words that are just the opposite of his actions.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, May 11, 18 @ 10:46 am
The U of I system is a model worth considering for SIU. For example, in medicine, UIC is tops. In engineering, Urbana. Law? Urbana (although there is talk that UIC might gobble up John Marshall).

For SIU, it seems like there could be some divisions within the system, perhaps limiting PhD programs in Edwardsville to focus more on teaching there, with research in Carbondale. SIUE has gained students primarily due to its location in a more highly populated region, not because of any sort of stellar programs that outshine what Carbondale offers. It has succeeded because of location, location, location.

There is a “both-and” solution here, but it’s not going to be easy and a blog comment isn’t going to capture all that needs to be figured out. The policy problem is that, due to poor oversight by the state, the competition between publics and the cuts in funding have led to a cannibalizing of public higher education. Shifting money from Carbondale to Edwardsville solves nothing. Re-imagining public higher education in Southern and Southwest Illinois should be the focus.

But I am not optimistic that something positive will come from the mess we’re in. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Comment by 47th Ward Friday, May 11, 18 @ 10:48 am
47, good points. I may debate some of them, the responsible thing is to study changing the system to maximize resource use. For too long we’ve seen starvation as the proposed solution to higher ed’s problems.

Comment by Norseman Friday, May 11, 18 @ 11:00 am
Good observations, 47. I wonder if it would make sense to roll up all state universities under 2 systems, one for “University of IL at (City)” and the other “Illinois State (City) “. Put SIUE under UofI and SIUC under Illinois State.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, May 11, 18 @ 11:14 am
===”Again, the principle behind whatever decision gets made here ought to be what’s best for the future of building up our universities, not tearing them down.”===

He’s not wrong…just sayin.

Comment by PublicServant Friday, May 11, 18 @ 11:40 am
Good Lord, Rauner pretty much waterboarded public universities in the state. How can he talk like that with a straight face?

Comment by dr. reason a, goodwin Friday, May 11, 18 @ 11:41 am
“very supportive of both campuses.”

that’s rich.
I was pretty sure he specifically had SIU in mind when he said:

“We need a lot of restructuring in our universities and our community colleges because we’ve got too much capacity, we’ve got a lot of redundancy, we’ve got a lot of overlap.”

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Friday, May 11, 18 @ 11:54 am
Anon 11:14am. It used to be a 3 Board system, U of I, Board of Regents and Board of Governors. That was split up sometime in the ’90s. It had it’s drawbacks too. However, I think the whole issue of higher ed governance, capacity and future merits a real, open discussion.

Comment by Lt Guv Friday, May 11, 18 @ 12:03 pm
There is enough bipartisan blame to go around in higher ed. Some of J. B. Pritzker’s allies supported such “leaders” as Cheryl Hyman who proved so bad that Rahm Emanuel had to oust her.

http://diverseeducation.com/article/115978/#.WvQ8aEDCLFU

Comment by Practical Politics Friday, May 11, 18 @ 12:42 pm