Classes begin at Western Illinois University next Monday with the school in a financial free fall.
The Macomb college issued a news release Aug. 9 announcing the elimination of 57 faculty and 32 staff positions. That came on the heels of choosing not to renew 35 faculty contracts effective July 1, implementing a hiring and spending freeze on June 3, eliminating more than 100 vacant positions from future budgets along with consolidation, restructuring, budget cuts, ending certain non-essential contracts, reducing building operations and “strategic reduction and realignment of student aid.”
Although WIU will keep open its Quad Cities campus, it’s cutting back on building operations there and relocating 16 faculty and staff positions from Moline to Macomb next year.
“It is heartbreaking to come to this point in our institution’s path where we are at a crossroads with no choice but to make a significant financial shift for the ultimate sustainability of the institution,” said Kristi Mindrup, the school’s interim president.
These are dark days for a school that marked the 125th anniversary of its founding in April. The Quad Cities campus has been operating for more than six decades. But it’s been a rocky road the last decade with major cuts and faculty departures in 2016 and 2017. In March 2019 Gov. JB Pritzker appointed seven new members to the WIU Board of Trustees, but only three of those people remain.
It would be impossible to adequately parse all the factors contributing to that turnover, but it seems a suboptimal recipe for solving a $20 million deficit.
As a parent of a 16- and 20-year-old, it’s inconceivable to think about having family finances tied up with an institution shedding teaching staff within 10 days of a new semester. Imagine those kids who committed to WIU after COVID ate the middle of their high school careers and now can’t even take all the classes shown in the course catalog when they committed to become Leathernecks.
Audio from the Aug. 6 trustees meeting is available online (tinyurl.com/WIUtrustees) for those with the time and patience to listen to two hours and 45 minutes of people running face-first into harsh realities. The evident emotion contrasts with the language in an official statement vowing “Mindrup and the leadership team will continue to actively explore new revenue opportunities and cost-saving measures to stabilize the budget, and as a result of these efforts, WIU will be positioned to evolve and innovate by attracting new markets of students, increasing student retention and transfer experiences and responding to the educational workforce development needs of our region and beyond.”
It seems wrong to predict WIU is destined to fail, but outside intervention may be essential. Hopefully, Springfield is watching.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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