A procedural move stymied plans to allow SIU Carbondale to borrow from SIU Edwardsville Thursday, but leaders say the idea isn’t dead.
SIU Trustees were set to consider the proposal at their meeting in Carbondale. Numerous opponents – mainly from the SIU Edwardsville campus – implored the board to reconsider.
SIU Carbondale Faculty Association President David Johnson says while the borrowing plan, along with a call for $30 million in permanent cuts, will be difficult to swallow, it’s important to the future of the institution and the region:
“We’re not just a random collection of reasonably high-paying jobs in southern Illinois. We are a national research university in southern Illinois. And SIUC, and its role in the southern Illinois economy, will rise and fall based on our success in teaching and research.”
SIU System President Randy Dunn expects the proposal to be brought back. But he says he hopes some of the anger towards this plan will also be targeted at Springfield – where lawmakers and the governor have not agreed to a budget resolution in nearly two years.
“But for the fact of the state impasse, which will be going into its 22nd month before we know it, we wouldn’t be here having this discussion.”
The plan, which wasn’t even considered because of a procedural move by Trustee Shirley Portwood, could come up at a special meeting later this spring.
