In the midst of a financial crisis that has caused support for higher education to dwindle, any good news is something to celebrate.

While Springfield continues to drag its feet in reconciling a budget that is billions of dollars out of balance, state agencies are scrambling to continue operating any way they can. Many of those efforts are focused on the short-term. Fortunately, the University faces no such danger.

However, the University is one of the few state agencies with the power and the resources to make a big commitment to improving the future. Tuesday’s announcement that a committee composed of students and administrators voted to spend $26 million to tackle targeted deferred maintenance projects is a bright sign.

Of those funds, $9 million is being set aside for repairs to the long-beleaguered Lincoln Hall. That historic building has been closed this semester as the University goes forward with plans to prep it for an overdue renovation. Unfortunately, that renovation is dependent on more than $50 million in state money that was promised years ago.

The rest of the money is going to be used to make repairs and improvements all over campus in a wide variety of areas such as life safety, new paint and new lighting.

Nobody decided to hang big chandeliers in every classroom, but rather energy efficient light bulbs that will eventually save the University money as it fights to keep utility bills low.

Unlike other repairs that will immediately depreciate, energy efficient light bulbs can eventually pay for themselves. This is the kind of initiative we should see more of.

While everyone would certainly like to see more dramatic action at the state and University level to alleviate budget shortfalls and tackle vital campus repairs, we know that it doesn’t come along very often.

Just as individuals can do a lot of small things everyday to help the environment and save themselves money, so should big operations like the University. These deferred maintenance projects will be tangible reminders that little things do make a difference in beautifying and improving our campus.

Springfield should take a cue from the committee that announced the new projects. It worked with the resources it had and chose projects that were not unrealistically ambitious or too insignificant. This time, saying it made a difference will not just be empty hype.

Even though Lincoln Hall will remain in a state of disrepair for the considerable future, little by little we’re taking the responsibility of caring for our campus that legislators abandoned long ago.