Monday, March 7, 2016

At Eastern Illinois University, my alma mater, a heartbreaking budget mess - Heidi Stevens, Chicago Tribune

Eastern, like the rest of the state's public universities, hasn't received a single dollar from Illinois in eight months, thanks to the General Assembly's and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's failure to agree on a budget. "It seems surrealist, to be frank," said Richard Wandling, professor and chair of Eastern's political science department. "It's beyond baffling." Wandling has taught at Eastern for 29 years. "Are we prepared to deal with the consequences when large numbers of Illinois students start looking to other states for college?" Wandling said. "We all know when you move to another state, you increase the chances that you're going to stay in that state after you graduate. We could be very much in the early stages of a brain drain, and that's not good for the economic welfare, the social welfare or the political welfare of the state. "There must be states out there licking their chops," he said. And we're preparing to feed them our young. http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-fund-eiu-budget-alum-balancing-0229-20160229-column.html