UPI to Governor: Stop Touting Enrollment and Start Funding Higher Education

Illinois - University Professionals of Illinois (UPI, Local 4100) President and Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) Membership Secretary John Miller released the following statement in response to Governor JB Pritzker’s announcement glossing over the higher education funding crisis while touting university enrollment:

“Governor Pritzker’s announcement ignores the crisis unfolding on our campuses. If he wants to tout enrollment numbers, he must also explain why he is still withholding $25 million owed to higher education. Enrollment gains do not fix understaffed departments, the elimination of professional librarians, inadequate resources, or student-support systems pushed to the breaking point. Illinois cannot celebrate numbers while refusing to address the conditions students, faculty, and staff face every day.

“Illinois continues to lose too many students to out-of-state public universities because it is simply more affordable for them to leave. This long-term brain drain is the direct result of the state’s failure to invest, and no press release can cover that up.

“Last week, UPI members and students delivered thousands of postcards demanding that the IBHE support the Adequate and Equity Funding Bill for our state universities. Since 2002, the state has underfunded our universities by more than $1.4 billion, which has caused increased student debt and a lack of resources at our institutions. While the state funds the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at 90 percent adequate funding, the rest of the public universities are funded at less than 70 percent, with the lowest funded at only 45 percent. All Illinois students deserve the same resources that UIUC provides.

“Students are paying the price for decades of state underfunding. Illinois universities have been clear. The governor’s continued delays deepen the harm. In October, faculty and staff were forced to travel to Springfield to demand that the governor release the higher education funds he still refuses to provide. Campuses have already absorbed losses from declining international enrollment and shrinking federal support. Illinois State University cut $12 million from its budget last year because the state did not meet its obligations. Both Eastern and Western Illinois Universities have recently eliminated faculty and staff positions to counter the cuts: they have nothing left to give.

“Students require more advisors, counselors, staff, and faculty. If Governor JB Pritzker wants to claim success, he must also take responsibility for the broken funding system that harms our students and institutions. He must fully fund higher education and immediately release the money owed to our universities. Anything less means he is celebrating numbers while ignoring the people behind them.”

###

The University Professionals of Illinois (UPI Local 4100) represents more than 3,000 education professionals at eight of Illinois' 12 public universities. UPI is an affiliate of the 1.7-million member American Federation of Teachers and part of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). UPI is also a local union in the 103,000-member Illinois Federation of Teachers.