Editorial: Higher ed layoffs have steep price - Patagraph

A number of downstate public universities might consider changing policies to avoid the expensive lesson learned by Chicago State University. CSU, like Illinois State, the University of Illinois, Eastern Illinois and Southern Illinois, is a state-supported public university. Like its brethren, the university received far less state money in the last year because of the state's financial problems. A recent investigation by the Chicago Tribune, using documents sought under the state's open records law, shows the CSU layoffs resulted in high expenses because of notification laws. "The mass layoffs, unusual in higher education, came with a cost: $2.2 million, the bulk of it in severance pay mandated by a longstanding school policy that requires up to a year's notice of being terminated or a payout for the time. It's a policy common at Illinois public universities but generous compared with what is provided by most schools in other states," the Tribune recently reported. http://www.pantagraph.com/news/opinion/editorial/editorial-higher-ed-layoffs-have-steep-price/article_47cb6900-a754-5e32-aa83-2913dcf14638.html