SIU board rejects reallocating funds from Carbondale to Edwardsville

Southern Illinois Unversity board members today narrowly rejected a proposal to reallocate some of the Carbondale campus funds to the Edwardsville campus.

The board voted 4-3 with one abstention against the reallocation.

Several Meto East legislators had supported the funding shift, sayhing the Edwardsville campus was underfunded when compared to Carbondale.

But an SIU spokesman said board members expressed concern that they had not had sufficient time to study the issue and were worried about the potential negative impact in Carbondale. The regular monthly meeting was held in Carbondale.

State Reps. Monica Bristow, D-Godfrey, LaToya Greenwood, D-East St. Louis, Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, and  Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, released a statement late Tuesday in support of the proposal.

“We support the Southern Illinois University system and both campuses located in Carbondale and Edwardsville who have had a relationship of working together. While we support the individual mission of each campus, during the last two decades, Southern Illinois University’s Carbondale campus has seen a sharp decline in enrollment, with a decrease of 37 percent since 1999. Meanwhile, the student population of Edwardsville’s campus has steadily increased, and the two campuses now rival each other in size. With equal student populations, the two campuses should get equal funding.”

The statement continued: “Historically, the Carbondale campus has received more than 60 percent of available state funding, but Edwardsville is deserving of their fair share. Edwardsville stood strong throughout the state’s budget impasse, and even loaned millions of dollars to Carbondale. The Edwardsville campus is no longer just for commuters. It is a competitive University and deserves to be funded as such.”