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NIU President Doug Baker Says Stopgap Measure Is 'Unsustainable'

State of Illinois

Northern Illinois University President Doug Baker testified Tuesday in Springfield on how his institution is responding to the lack of a state budget.

He was among a handful of university presidents speaking to the Senate Appropriations Committee this week. He said the additional cuts required by the state’s failure to fund higher education are taking a broad toll.

“Unfortunately, these kinds of cuts hit those with the lowest financial ability the most,” Baker said. “It hurts the most needy students the worst, but it impacts all of them.”

Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Sen. Pat McGuire, a Joliet Democrat, said a generation of students are being harmed by the governor’s lack of a clear plan for higher education in Illinois.

“We’ve heard of ‘thousands of decisions,’ as Northern Illinois University president Douglas Baker put, to rein in costs and streamline programs,” McGuire said of the details about attempting to triage university staff and programs for possible reduction or elimination. “That action at NIU and other state colleges is in sharp contrast to lack of any apparent plan for higher education from the Rauner administration other than to let schools wither.”

Calling the Illinois House’s recently-passed stopgap measure “unsustainable,” Baker said universities need stability and predictability from state government.

“In the absence of any plan from the Rauner administration for how to stabilize and strengthen our state’s higher education system,” McGuire said, “I fear we’re creating a two-class higher education system in Illinois where those who can afford it will be able to earn college degrees, but those who can’t afford it are out of luck.”