Jones Legislation Aims to Keep the Doors at Chicago State University Open

Ill. State Sen. Emil Jones III (D-Chicago, Dist.-14th)
Ill. State Sen. Emil Jones III (D-Chicago, Dist.-14th)

Chicago State University recently announced that it will be unable to pay for operational costs after March 1 due to the unprecedented seven month-long budget impasse. Without a budget, university students across the state who are recipients of MAP grants and tuition assistance are increasingly concerned about the prospect of not graduating.

State Senator Emil Jones III (D-Chicago) introduced legislation that provides funding to ensure CSU can keep its doors open for the remainder of the semester.

“Seeing the students at CSU rally around their university shows the community and the state just how much pride they have in their school,” Jones said. “This budget impasse has a lot of students stressed out about their future. The majority of the students affected by Rauner’s tactics are students who don’t come from the best backgrounds, but are trying to achieve more to build their community.”

Jones’ legislation appropriates funding for Chicago State University at the level the governor originally proposed.

“The State of Illinois has been without a budget for far too long. Many public institutions have been operating on reserved funds, and CSU has been dreading what was to come from not being funded. We have now reached our worst-case scenario. We are out of funds,” said Paris Griffin, Student Government Association president.

Once legislators return to Springfield, the measure will be sent to the Senate Rules Committee to be assigned for further consideration.

The Associated press reported earlier this month that all of Illinois’ public universities have cut spending while they plead with the state to get the money flowing before they have to further – and drastically – cut programs.

Already, the state has stopped the flow of Monetary Award Program grants that many low-income students rely on. Universities so far have been covering grant costs but say they can’t do that indefinitely.

And Chicago State, a former teacher’s college that caters to many low-income students, lacks outside resources like a pool of well-off donors that schools such as the University of Illinois can fall back on.

“A lot of our students are parents,” said Paris Griffin, the student government president. “We really don’t have anywhere else to go.”

No one knows what will happen if Chicago State’s situation doesn’t change before March – whether classes come to a halt, employees go without pay or students scheduled to graduate in May have to wait.

“Our mission, our challenge right now, is to make sure that doesn’t happen,” university spokesman Tom Wogan said. “I can’t sit here today and tell you exactly how we’re going to do that.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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