By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – It’s not that Illinois Senators don’t want to see Southern Illinois University spin its two campuses off. It’s that they are a bit confused about the plan to make it happen.
Most of the conversation during Southern Illinois University’s annual budget hearing in the Illinois Senate this week focused on whether the school will split the Edwardsville and Carbondale campuses.
SIU-E is growing, Carbondale is not. SIU Trustees earlier this month voted down a plan that would shift about $5 million to SIU-E to reflect that.
Because of the vote, there’s now a plan at the statehouse, HB 1292, to make the Edwardsville campus independent.
State Sen. Chapin Rose told SIU leaders there’s no doubt that SIU-E is succeeding, but he said he doesn’t want to see another campus just to see more administrators.
“I am not going to be for anything that adds more administrative costs to our higher education system at the expensive of higher tuition and less money to the classroom,” Rose said. “So any proposal that wants to split us up, and add more administrative bloat. That makes no sense to the taxpayers, the students, or their families.”
SIU President Randy Dunn said there would be some cost savings “at the system level” because the SIU system would be shrinking. Though each campus’ administration would be growing.
Dunn then told Senators he’s not taking a position on the split.
State Sen. Jim Oberweis suggested that perhaps Dunn should.
“I’m a businessman and I tend to look at these things from a business viewpoint,” Oberweis said. “If I have two product lines, one of which is hitting home runs and the other of which is struggling, I am going to take the assets of my company and pump them into the one that is hitting the home runs. Because that’s where the profits are, that’s where the growth is, that’s where the opportunity is.”
Oberweis said Dunn could show real leadership by taking an official position on the split.
The proposal to create an SIU-E Board of Trustees, and an independent campus, is poised for a vote in the Illinois House.
