On his first day as president of the University of Illinois, Michael Hogan learned the state was cutting $100 million in higher education funding.
"Mostly I'm getting e-mails from people saying, 'Are you nuts?'" he said Thursday. "'Do you realize all the problems that the University of Illinois is having, the State of Illinois, the budget problems and so on?' Of course I know all about them."
Hogan, 66, said he was too new to the job to provide specifics on balancing the U. of I. budget, which includes $279 million in money owed by the state and what he estimated was another $40 million to $45 million lost in Gov. Quinn's budget announced Thursday.
"It is extremely incumbent on people like me, on university leaders these days, to pinch every single penny as hard as we can," he said.
Hogan's comments were featured in a July 2, 2010, article in the Chicago Sun-Times.
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