SIC makes several budget cuts at Thursday meeting

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[With bleak state financial projections looming, Southeastern Illinois College made several budget cuts Thursday at a special meeting.

The cuts include:

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<li> All extracurricular activities were reduced by 25 percent.

</li>

<li> Four faculty members were laid off. The faculty members include Daniel Randall, Gallatin County dual auto and diesel instructor; Amanda Mayberry, health occupations instructor; Greg Hall, coordinator of institutional assessment; and Ruben Adatorwovor, director of the Student Success Center. One administrative position and one clerical position were also reduced from full-time to part-time, according to a news release from SIC.</li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li> "There may be more restructuring and additional belt tightening in the future due to the state's default on their payments to us," SIC President Jonah Rice said.</li>

</ul>

The college has only received two full quarterly state payments and one partial payment for 2010 from the state. Signs point to no further payments before the fiscal year ends on June 30, according to the news release. That will put the college short $3.7 million from what the state originally promised in state aid to the school. A loss of that amount translates to a 25 percent cut in overall funding for the college.

Projections for Fiscal Year 2011 are even worse. College officials are being told they may only receive one of four state payments, meaning a shortfall of 40 percent overall, according to the news release. Since SIC relies on state funding more than local property taxes, cuts by the state play havoc with the budget.

"It's unfair to small colleges in the south as we don't have the local tax base to sustain ourselves like metropolitan colleges do," Dr. Jonah Rice, interim president, said. "We can't function like they do."

The board also held a first reading of a proposed policy that would require upper-level administrators either to take furlough days or accept teaching assignments.

"Southeastern is celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, and we will continue to preserve our reputation and mission of providing quality, affordable education to our students," Rice said. "It's a tragic situation to be faced with such dismal financial circumstances - and not of our own making - at a time when we should be celebrating our great accomplishments over the past five decades."