BY KELLY WILZ The narrative surrounding higher education in Wisconsin is yet again being defined by those who do not work in higher education and unfortunately, as we’ve seen before, this line of attack is incredibly persuasive. “The No Confidence vote isn’t really about President Cross or the Board of Regents. The radical faculty at UW-Madison are rejecting…
These are the opening paragraphs from a report by WLS—ABC, Channel 7, in Chicago: “Chicago State University laid off more than 300 people due to lack of funding during the ongoing state budget impasse. The layoffs were announced Friday [April 29] and effective immediately. “The school has been struggling with budget issues for months. Just…
On Monday, April 25, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation providing $600 million for the state’s public universities and community colleges, funding that may help to keep the campuses open through the summer while the budget battle between the Republican governor and Democratic legislature continues. Rauner released a statement suggesting that the bill “doesn’t solve…
Here are the opening paragraphs of an article by Martin Slagter on the Michigan Live website: “Howard Bunsis is keeping the heat on Eastern Michigan University, recommending the school drop Division I football and join the Horizon League. “Bunsis, accounting professor and treasurer of the EMU-AAUP, suggested the university consider making the switch during Friday’s…
Although the universities in the state’s flagship system have not yet been impacted as severely as other institutions by the ongoing state budget impasse, some significant issues are clearly surfacing. The following is from an article by Charles Thomas and Ben Bradley on the WLS-TV website: “On the University of Illinois-Chicago campus, the state promised…
The following paragraphs are taken from an article by Leah Nicolini written for the Northern Star, the student-produced newspaper at Northern Illinois University: “Due to a lack of state appropriated funds, NIU plans to cut $30 million from its budget, by the end of the semester, to keep the school out of deficit for the…
These are the opening paragraphs of the news story “Illinois Risks Brain Drain as University Students Look Elsewhere” written by Elizabeth Campbell for Bloomberg News: “As a May 1 deadline looms for high school seniors deciding where to attend college, students are thinking twice about universities in Illinois, where the worst budget crisis in state…
One of the more detailed overviews of the immediate impact of the budget mess in Illinois on the state’s college and university campuses has been provided by George Gallanis in a March 29 article for the World Socialist Web Site: “Earlier this month Southern Illinois University, located in Carbondale, announced the potential layoffs of 180…
These are the opening paragraphs of a news story by Mike Riopell in the Chicago Daily Record: “A suburban Republican lawmaker wants to send Illinois universities four months’ worth of state funding to try to ensure they open their doors for the next school year. “The ‘stopgap’ proposal from state Rep. Mike Fortner, a West…
Howard Bunsis, Chair of the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress, and David Hughes, President of the Rutgers University AAUP-AFT, discussed college and university sports spending and priorities on an episode of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, to be aired tonight. Here is a segment with Howard Bunsis: And here’s a link to the trailer featuring…