The University of Illinois has now used 671 million dollars from its reserves to make up for a lack of state funding, due to the budget impasse in Springfield. That the word from U of I Chief Financial Officer Walter Knorr. He told U of I Trustees at their meeting in Chicago Thursday that the reserve funds spend include about 60-million dollars for the Monetary Awards Program, or MAP grants. For now, the university has taken care those grants for low-income students, but they could be asked to pay them back later. Knorr’s comments came on the same day Trustees voted to freeze tuition rates at current levels for the 2016-17 academic year. He says if there’s no state budget by May… the U of I needs to decides the future of those grants for the next fiscal year.
“What’s going to happen if we don’t get the MAP? That’s a key decision that’s going to have to be made about with MAP for ’16. It also, for ’17 throws you into – for purposes of putting together your financial aid packages, what assumptions should you make as far the financial aid package for ’17… along with this tuition decision?” U of I President Timothy Killeen says freezing tuition rates shows the university is taking a proactive stance… and ensuring access to a high-quality education. University officials hope to hold future tuition increases to the rate of inflation or below.
