Subhead: WIU Could Get Bigger Share
If House Bill 1581, 'Adequate and Equitable Public University Funding Act,' continues to advance, and eventually passes and is signed into legislation, Western Illinois University could get a bigger piece of the state funding pie.
On Thursday, in a 12-4 vote, HB1581 moved out of a House committee, and could face a full House vote in the near future, in spite of pushback from the state's largest university. The bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana, whose district is home to the state’s flagship University of Illinois, establishes a needs-based formula for distributing new funding for universities, like the evidence- based funding used for K-12 schools. The new funding bill increases university funding by close to $135 million each year over the next 15 years, with funds distributed under a method that sets an adequacy target for each institution and gives priority to those institutions furthest away from their target. Funding would still be subject to appropriations set by the General Assembly.
'The Adequate and Equitable Funding formula will ensure Western Illinois University remains affordable and accessible to students, and competitive in our efforts to retain students from our region and throughout Illinois,' said WIU President Kristi Mindrup. 'Adequate funding will also position WIU to grow while expanding excellent, sustainable academic programs and services that foster student success and fulfill our unique mission to strengthen our communities, region and state.'
On April 16, WIU faculty, staff and students, along with community members, will convene in Springfield for the University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) 'Teach Out at the State Capitol,' as part of the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding Advocacy Day. To register, visit tinyurl.com/HigherEdAdvocacyDay.
'This is our biggest opportunity right now to improve WIU's dismal funding situation,' Cole told The Community News Brief in an earlier story about the April 16 event. 'Instead of waiting passively for the political winds to change, University Professionals of Illinois, together with our colleagues in the Illinois Federation of Teachers, are working together to make education funding an unavoidable priority for our legislators and the governor.'
Currently, the IBHE allocates flat percentage funding for Illinois' public university system, which includes, along with WIU, Eastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Carbondale, Illinois State, Chicago State, Governors State, Northeastern University and the University of Illinois System that includes three universities around the state. If the new funding formula was used today, WIU would be considered the most in-need institution in the state at 48 percent of its adequacy target. The University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign campus, currently at 89% of its adequacy target, is considered the most adequately funded school under the proposed model and would be last in line for new funding.
The equity funding proposal came from the Illinois Commission on Equitable University Funding that lawmakers established in 2021 to develop a new funding mechanism for state universities following the two-year budget impasse during then-Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration. Universities like Western continue to feel the impact of that budget impasse from over a decade ago. In Illinois, like other states, state appropriations previously constituted the largest source of a university’s funding, followed by tuition and fees. Today, WIU relies more on tuition and fees as the funding from the state has dwindled in recent years.
