Chicago State University is planning to make some big cuts that could come this school year.
Thursday, the board of trustees of the university voted to allow staff lay offs - including tenured professors.
Thomas Calhoun - the president of Chicago State University - says the cuts are necessary because the school hasn't been paid by the Illinois state government.
"It is a large amount of money and we simply have been able to operate for as long as we have because we were efficient, but we just don't have enough to keep going."
Last year - Chicago State - which serves mostly black students - received nearly 40 million dollars from the state.
No public university in Illinois has been paid by the state in eight months.
