SPRINGFIELD — University students, alumni, faculty and staff played the role of lobbyists Wednesday on Capitol Day as over 100 representatives from the three campuses descended on the Capitol Complex in Springfield. The lobbyists’ No. 1 task: Ask lawmakers for $33 million more for the University in fiscal year 2014.

University President Robert Easter said Illinois Connection, the fourth annual lobby day, which was organized by the University of Illinois Alumni Association’s advocacy group, is a day to remind the Illinois government of the University’s value to the state.

“If you look at (University alumni) and their accomplishments … you can see the transformative power of the University that’s enabled them to do things,” he said.

Easter and Illinois Connection leaders said the University cannot move forward with the state’s current proposed appropriation of $634.4 million to the University for fiscal year 2014. According to the UIAA — adjusted for inflation — this figure is below 1965 levels, and in actual dollars it’s around the same amount as 1997. 

Lobby day participants were instructed to ask for the same level of funding as the current fiscal year’s appropriations: $667.4 million.

In the past 10 years, the state’s contribution to the University’s overall operating budget has shrunk from 27.6 percent in fiscal year 2003 to 12.3 percent in fiscal year 2013. In that same time, the overall operating budget for the University system has almost doubled from $2.75 billion in fiscal year 2003 to $5.42 billion in fiscal year 2013.

The appropriations have had a downward trend since Gov. Pat Quinn’s first budget proposal for fiscal year 2010; over $113 million has been shaved from the University’s appropriations in four years.

A major reason why the appropriations have slid so far can be attributed to an issue that’s been on the tip of Gov. Quinn’s tongue for well over a year now: pension reform. Currently, Illinois is nearing $100 billionin unfunded pension liability, which is taking money from the state’s general funds and leaving inadequate funds leftover for state agencies and programs, including the University, according to Quinn’s administration. 

As the overwhelming majority of the University’s appropriated state funds come from the state’s general funds, the more that is spent on pensions, the less the state is able to come through on its budgetary promises toward the University. These outstanding funds especially affect how the University is able to budget for research, faculty and staff salary, Easter said.

Luring talented faculty to the University has been made difficult due to its inability to offer competitive salaries, Easter said. But pension’s squeeze on general funds isn’t the only qualm Easter said he has with pension. The same faculty member who may overlook a lower salary number because of the University’s reputation, he said, may get that far only to be turned off by the unreliable promises of retiring with the state of Illinois through the pension system. 

“Anyone who seriously considers going to any (public) institution looks at overall reputation and relationship with the state,” he said. “When they see in the media the challenges in Illinois, (pension) becomes a concern.”

Because of underfunding for faculty salaries, Easter said the University has experienced faculty “brain drain” in the last decade, citing faculty numbers of “several hundred less than five to 10 years ago.” The president expressed the desire to grow the faculty so that class sizes, which have already increased, won’t take another hit. But with low funding, he said it is difficult to budget creatively. 

Compounding the University’s state appropriation issues is the state’s practice of delaying payments to agencies, including public universities. As of February, public universities and community colleges statewide were owed $1.1 billion for vouchers submitted to the state but not yet paid, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Kappy Laing, executive director of Governmental Relations for the University, said it has found ways to deal with late payments.

“We’ve become accustomed to being paid late,” she said. “The alarming thing is that (compensating for late payments) has become the regular way of doing business.”

Laing said she doesn’t expect solutions to the pension problem and the state’s debt to the University to happen overnight, but she said lobbying and events like UI lobby day help keep the University at the forefront of lawmakers’ minds.

“I think they have a lot of sympathy for the University of Illinois,” she said. “Most of the General Assembly recognize the contribution (the University) makes to the state with innovation and growing the economy.”

According to the state’s Board of Higher Education, late payments to public universities include Monetary Assistance Program grant funding, which has compounded to a near $73 million deficit in fiscal year 2013 alone. The portion of that total owed to the University of Illinois is almost $28.8 million. Easter said secure MAP grant funding is a major concern, as he pointed out that MAP grants provide assistance to more than 15,642 University students of a total 77,483 students in the system. 

For students, both prospective and current, the most pressing part of the entire financial equation is how the state’s funding relationship with the University affects tuition, said David Pileski, student trustee at the Urbana campus. 

“Whenever the state delays payments, it makes setting tuition difficult, because it’s hard for us to appropriately forecast,” he said. “All students are concerned about tuition hikes, which speaks volumes of our student body. Even though someone’s tuition is locked in, (students) are worried about increases for future students.”

Though the tuition increase for the coming academic year was historically low, raising tuition will be considered when securing a working budget for the University when the state’s funds don’t come through rephrase. Student tuition and fees make up the largest percentage of the University’s current operating budget, followed by state support, according to the University budget. However, as recently as 2009, state support made up more of the budget than tuition and fees. In fiscal year 2013, 19.3 percent of the operational budget came from this revenue, the highest percentage ever, according to the budget. 

Easter said he is worried about the increasing tuition and the possibility of decreased MAP grant support.

“What concerns me is the extent to which very qualified young people are not being able to attend (the University) because of tuition,” he said.

Hannah can be reached at [email protected].