SIUE chancellor: ‘We cannot afford to fiddle while Springfield burns’ - Elizabeth Donald, Belleville News Democrat

Employees at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will be offered incentives for early retirement and a university-wide “congress” will be convened to cope with more expected cuts in state funding, as SIUE officials attempt to move forward without a state budget. Interim chancellor Stephen Hansen gave the annual “state of the university” address at SIUE on Tuesday, summarizing the university’s accomplishments briefly before turning to the challenges created by the lack of a state budget. Hansen said SIUE is going to proceed with a 9-percent “realignment” of the university’s budget, as well as beginning long-term plans for finding alternative funding to state support. In 2002, state funding provided 72 percent of the university’s budget; it is now 40 percent, with a loss of one-sixth of its funding just since 2010. http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article38931285.html