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WIU To Furlough Again

Adam Moss
/
Creative Commons

Some Western Illinois University employees will have to take more unpaid days off as the school tries to cope with a drastic decrease in state aid.

This spring, Western imposed furloughs on non-negotiated staff earning more-than 40-thousand dollars. They had to take those days off between April and June.

Western’s Budget Director Matt Bierman says employees in a similar category will have to take another 6 to 8 unpaid days during the new fiscal year that begins Friday.

"Eight days which is anyone over $50,000 equals a 3.1% reduction in a salary or wage earnings, it felt like that was a reasonable number and place to be,” said Bierman.

No union employee groups on campus have agreed to participate in the furlough program for next year.
Bierman says furloughs saved Western about 1.2 million dollars this year and should save about another 780,000 dollars next year.

Western and most other public colleges in Illinois have only received about 30% of their regular state appropriation this year.

The Illinois legislature has not passed a spending plan for the current or next budget cycle.

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