Susan Koch, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Springfield, says her campus is managing to weather the budget impasse, thanks to the school’s push to recruit more students.
Koch says that decision,made five years ago, is paying off now with record-high enrollment.
In a brief speech to the faculty senate last week, Koch tried to reassure employees, telling them the university is doing okay, despite eight months without aid.
Asked whether that proves Gov. Bruce Rauner’s argument that institutions of higher education have fat they could cut from their budgets, Koch said UIS "has been on a diet for years and is pretty slim" already.
“I don’t think the fact that, you know, that we’re stable, necessarily feeds into the governor’s argument," Koch said. "I think he has the best interests of our communities in mind, and he also would understand that more college graduates is really the solution, not the problem.”
Koch also told campus senators about a recent study showing state appropriations for higher education had gone up nationwide by an average of more than four percent.
