What's Next for CSU


In April, Chicago State University received emergency funds from the Illinois State legislature in the amount of $20.1 million, after a school year of campaigning and fighting for funds to avoid tenured faculty layoffs and closing its’ doors.

During that time, the university eliminated their spring break to cut cost and moved graduation up by 2 weeks. In addition to that, this past Friday, Chicago State University was forced to lay-off one-third of their workforce, or about 300 employees, to save in payroll costs. The layoffs were effective immediately. The Citizen was able to sit down with Dr. Thomas J. Calhoun, president of CSU shortly after the graduation ceremonies to discuss what’s next for the south side university.

Citizen: What did receiving the emergency funds mean for the university, as far as the students and faculty members were concerned?

Calhoun: The emergency funds, which were in the amount of about $20 million, absolutely gave a sense of relief to the community and certainly a sense of relief towards our comfort level with continuing to operate the university. So this gave us a great deal of happiness and staving off what would have been a difficult time had we not received it. So I would say that the students and faculty members that are aware right now are quite pleased.

Citizen: With the information that you have now and understanding what you will need, will the school be able to operate for the upcoming fall session?

Calhoun: Absolutely. We are in full mode to have summer session and to operate in the fall. We will absolutely be not just functioning, but fully functioning.

Citizen: I see. From what other media outlets have communicated, this emergency fund was only a band-aid that would only help the university with the session that just ended this past week.

Calhoun: Well, we fully expect that there will be more funds. Now, the $20 million is a band-aid and everybody knows that; the legislature knows it and the governor knows it. It is only a percentage of what we really needed. But the fact of the matter is, is that we’re planners. We are in the process of laying out different scenarios. If we get additional money, which we fully anticipate getting, we have one scenario. If we don’t, we have another scenario that plays out. But with either case, we will be fully functioning for the fall. We are registering students right now; we’re building and loading our courses. However, we anticipate a very healthy, financial position and a very robust beginning to our fall session.

Citizen: I understand that the university has been doing a phonathon since March. Has that campaign had a significant impact on the school?

Calhoun: Yes, the alumni affairs office is conducting a phonathon to alumni for purposes of primarily raising money, but also to just reach out to our alumni to make sure they understand our current situation and getting them cultivated and more engaged into the overall life of the university as far as events and things of that nature. It’s a lot of work, getting to 40,000 on that list and I think right now, we’re about 20 to 30% through the list, so over 10,000 already called.

Citizen: Just to go off of that question – in what ways has the community been able to step up in order to help the university?

Calhoun: There have been a number of efforts. There have been a number of churches that have made contributions; they’ve held “Chicago State Day”. They are other community based organizations that have held rallies; we’ve had people go down to Springfield with us to make our case before the governor and legislature. Operation P.U.S.H. has been very generous in highlighting Chicago State University as one of the great universities of the city that deserves to be supported. The Rev. Jesse Jackson personally has done a number of appearances on our behalf. We have also had support from the Chicago Teachers’ Union, and so it has been overwhelming, the amount of support that has been shown to us.

Citizen: What’s next for you as the president of Chicago State University?

Calhoun: Well I came in with a number of goals. I had made clear that I thought diversification of our revenue streams was a must. State schools, us included, have depended on tuition and state funds to keep us afloat; when in reality that’s no longer enough. We have got to be smart about fundraising. Another top priority would be to grow our enrollment. We have got to do a better job at recruiting students and getting our story out to get those students here, because I feel that our enrollment is nowhere near where it could be. And along with that, we would need to develop our infrastructure to accommodate more enrollments. There are many other different things, but if I had to list the top three, they would be: enrollment growth, fundraising and enhancement of our physical campus. Regardless, the future for this university is quite bright.

This interview occurred hours before employees at CSU were laid off. When the Citizen reached back out to Dr. Calhoun for further comment after employees were laid off, Dr. Calhoun declined to comment.

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