WIU Board clears the way for university administrators to lay off about 124 workers

MACOMB – Less than two weeks before fall semester starts at Western Illinois University, WIU’s Board of Trustees at an emergency meeting Aug. 6 authorized the university’s current administration to lay off faculty and staff to cope with a budget shortfall of about $10 million.

Days later the exact number was released: 57 faculty positions and 32 staff jobs. Those 89 are on top of 35 others laid off this summer.

At the Aug. 6 meeting, WIU’s interim President Kristi Mindrup said, “We are at a crossroads, with no choice but to make a significant financial shift for the ultimate sustainability of Western Illinois University.”

The union representing more than 500 WIU faculty, instructors and academic support professionals dispute that no other choices are available.

“The administration’s announcement to lay off more of our experienced, dedicated faculty and academic support professionals is ill-conceived,” said Merrill Cole, president of WIU’s Chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) Local 4100, an affiliate of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT).

“These layoffs will impact the quality of education that WIU offers to students, devastating our community and regional economy [and] have a negative and immediate impact. Lower enrollment is sure to follow, which will further harm the university’s bottom line.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” he continued. “This new administration needs to strengthen and guide the university forward instead of gutting the quality of education.”

The total enrollment at WIU’s Macomb and Quad Cities campuses was 6,495 this spring, about half what it was 14 years ago, when a steady decline started. (See chart). With falling revenues – plus former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget impasse and the COVID pandemic – WIU made up annual deficits with restricted funds, which are now depleted.

At an Aug. 5 rally at Chandler Park here – where about 100 WIU workers and students, plus members of the community turned out to support faculty – UPI 4100 state president John Miller, an executive vice president at IFT, said layoffs are short-sighted failures in such situations.

“Layoffs will not solve the problem,” he said. “This would be the fourth time for [layoffs at] Western and none has worked.”

Miller urged WIU leaders to “not repeat the mistakes of previous administrators and previous trustees,” and encouraged them to look for other steps, such as the WIU Foundation, which has net assets of more than $100 according to its most recent tax form analyzed by ProPublica.

WIU spokeswoman Alisha Looney, an interim Assistant Vice President, said, “Like many institutions across the country, Western Illinois University is adapting institutional expenditures, operations, services and staffing to reflect the changing population and student needs. In an ongoing commitment to achieving fiscal stability, 35 Unit B faculty contract non-renewals were announced this summer, and additional layoffs are being identified.”

Indeed, writing in Forbes magazine, president emeritus of Missouri State University Michael Nietzel mentioned WIU, the University of New Orleans, and Massachusetts’ Wittenberg College as locations where major budget cuts are being considered. In Macomb, it’s been a leak that’s becoming a flood.

Those 35 faculty members were laid off in June. On July 10, Mindrup told a Faculty Senate meeting that many more layoffs were ahead, and said the university originally had needed to cut spending by $20 million.

The administration said austerity measures were enacted in June, including freezing spending, suspending hiring, cutting department budgets and reducing student aid. That reduced the deficit to about $13 million, and dismissing the first 35 teachers (whose positions weren’t tenured, so they had no job security) will save about $3 million, she said.

“If we’re needing to balance the budget and ensure we have a cash flow throughout the year, we’re going to need to make adjustments to personnel,” she told Quincy’s WGEM-TV 10. “We’re not leaving any stone unturned.”

Neither Mindup nor any Board member cited other options to cutting faculty, but they came close to blaming previous administrations.

WIU Board Chair Carin Stutz said the Board’s responsibility is oversight, not management, commenting, “Over the last few years, we have strongly pushed for action, including personnel changes, but we cannot make the changes ourselves. Our expectations and commitment [last year)] was that spending would be aligned with revenue.”

Mindrup said 80% of WIU’s budget is personnel, so that’s where more cuts will be made. However, WIU says it has 1,313 workers, including 519 faculty, meaning that almost 800 others who don’t teach remain on the payroll.

Robert Hironimus-Wendt, a WIU sociology professor for 20 years before retiring, reported that WIU’s administration had notified deans in the school’s four colleges (Arts & Sciences, Business & Technology, Education & Human Services, and Fine Arts & Communication) to each name 25 tenured or tenure-track faculty for layoff.

“Whether they get to 100 or not, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “If they only get 50, that’s still 50 families that are losing family wages.”

Union president Cole said Mindrup is dealing with a fiscal problem that developed over years but “all of sudden we have to solve everything in six months. That’s fiscal insanity.

 “We are very frustrated with what appears to be a constantly shifting rationale, constantly shifting numbers, shifting objectives and what appears to be no real plans to grow WIU in the future,” he continued. “People are terrorized, to put it bluntly. This is no way to start the school year. I’ve heard of classes being cancelled, of class sizes being increased. None of this is good for our students and none of it is good for our faculty. None of it is good for the communities that we serve. We are a major economic engine in west central Illinois, and to damage us means to damage everyone.

“We urge the administration and the BoT to stop before more damage, and perhaps irreparable damage, is done – tearing down the university. Everything’s on the table. Now is the time for action.”

 

Area lawmakers voice concerns

* “I am disappointed to learn of the painful cuts happening at Western Illinois University. WIU is a major employer in my district and has provided high-quality education to thousands for many years, and these cuts undoubtedly will make maintaining those standards of excellence that much more difficult,” said State Sen. Mike Halpin (D-Rock Island). “As Chairman of the Illinois Senate Higher Education Committee, I am committed to doing everything possible to help increase funding for our colleges and universities, to ensure they drive our economic and educational success for the short term and long term. We have to address this challenge together.”

*          State Rep. Gregg Johnson D-East Moline) added, “My heart goes out to the faculty and academic support workers whose jobs will be lost. Layoffs will hurt our local and regional economy, and I am particularly concerned in light of other recent layoffs impacting our region. I am committed to working with my colleagues Sen. Halpin and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorenson in conjunction with stakeholders across the area to address this growing problem head-on.

“I encourage anyone affected to reach out to my office. We will do everything in our power to connect you with programs and services that will help get you back on your feet.”