What's Being Said in Springfield...

So if you haven't read the recent article about possible futures for CSU, I have provided the link. The long and the short of it is, CSU is in trouble. It has been in trouble for years, largely due to the wrong people being appointed to the Board of Trustees, the wrong people being hired to serve as president, a distinct lack of oversight by legislators entrusted to protect the taxpayers money and to a much lesser degree a faculty, mostly ignored by the Governor and by administration. Much of what is quoted in the article could be characterized as political posturing. Some of it can be characterized as responding to a larger crisis by focusing on a smaller issue. The legislature continues to search for the easy, fast and politically palatable solution for the state's financial situation. I question where the legislators' outrage was when the Faculty Senate asked the Governor to remove the Board of Trustees during a flawed presidential search process? A cry for help went unanswered and the university finds itself nearer to closing.
Given that there are some who would see the university closed or consolidated, it is even more curious that so much attention is being placed by the new regime on the construction of a dormitory, the relocation of the Child Care Center and the opening of a Charter School on campus. It would seem that the university should focus on the things it already does well and improve the things its needs to. What it shouldn't do at this juncture is undertake new projects that don't lie at the core of the institution's mission until the university rights itself. The university's administration and Board need to prove they can be trusted with public funds and can support the mission of the university effectively. Employing another "builder president" was a bad start. Increasing admissions standards, advertising further afield, asking the faculty for their wisdom on all academic matters, and taking a more proactive role in external fund raising would be a much better start. Those are the activities that would begin to restore the much maligned reputation of the university.
The students seem to be much more in tune as at the last Board of Trustees meeting the Student Government Association asked for the resignation of the Board chairman much to the surprise of the other board members. Faculty might take their lead from the students and continue the pressure needed to right a ship guided for decades by incompetence . With no Illinois Senate President to provide largess, the university must prove its mettle. Is it up to the task or will its failure seal its fate?