Now that Illinois has a budget, the University of Illinois is breathing a sigh of relief despite being faced with major cuts.
Under the new budget, universities throughout the state received a 10 percent cut from the last budget in 2015, that's nearly $6 million for the University of Illinois' three campuses combined. They are also not receiving any late payments owed from 2016, which totaled more than $450 million. Still, they are happy to be able to move forward and plan for the future especially when it comes to filling positions.
"Now that we have some certainty, we know what we will be able to do," UIS Chancellor Susan Koch said. "We will take a very careful look at those empty positions and think about what can we most strategically move forward in hire, and yet, because of the cuts we will certainly leave some of those positions empty as well."
Also under the new budget, MAP grants are fully funded again, which UIS says, is very important for their campus.
In 2016, more than 700 students received MAP grants, totaling about $2.5 million.
