With costs of higher education steadily on the rise, a negligent move by the state, resulting in the University of Illinois system losing $500,000, is blatantly irresponsible and simply unacceptable.

For the 2007 fiscal year, state appropriations will be paid to the University system over a period of about 10 months, instead of the usual nine. The result of this is that the University system will have to dip into tuition money earlier in the year and will consequently not earn extra revenue on money held in the bank.

While the resulting loss of $500,000 is not a significant amount when weighed against the University’s total yearly spending, it still hurts the University system, which would typically use this money to pay for utilities. This cost-cutting move by the state that effectively hurts Illinois higher education is a microcosm of the larger picture: The state consistently neglects the needs of its Universities. In a state where politicians constantly fly the flags of its universities, touting them as a symbol of the state’s greatness, this kind of behavior is, at the very least, hypocritical.

The University has been under-funded in the past few years under the Blagojevich administration, and continues to be ignored by the state. Since 2001, both resident, and non-resident tuition has doubled. During this period, state appropriations for the University have not even kept pace with inflation. And while the University could have been accused of frivolous spending at the beginning of the decade, it now isn’t even given enough money to perform some of its most vital functions.

With these things in mind, it is important now, more than ever, that the state be reasonable in what they give, and that the University be reasonable in what they spend. In a state where higher education is flaunted as a great asset, great attention must be paid to ensuring that this education stays accessible to the tax-paying citizens.

The only way that higher education can be continuously improved is for the state and its universities to work together, honestly and realistically, to put money where it serves citizens best.