State education officials will meet Friday to begin hashing out ways to increase college services in and around Lake County, though they have virtually ruled out a four-year residential college in the county.
A new school would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and could hurt the private and public colleges that already dot the area, education officials and state lawmakers said Thursday.
“I don’t see the General Assembly approving funding for a new university,” said Sen. Dan Cronin (R-Elmhurst), chairman of the Senate Education Committee. “It wouldn’t be in the cards.”
Edward H. Moore, who chairs the State Board of Higher Education subcommittee studying options for Lake County, said the panel quickly dismissed the idea of a four-year, residential college.
“That was never even on our wish list,” Moore said. “It’s just not practical.”
Instead, the subcommittee, when it meets Friday in Chicago, is expected to focus mainly on non-traditional options, such as expanded use of telecommuting, as it searches for a way to allow Lake County residents to secure a bachelor’s degree without leaving the county.
One of the most attractive options, Moore said, would be the creation of a multiuniversity center where students, after completing work at a two-year college, would go to get a bachelor’s degree from any of several of the state’s existing universities.
Such a center already has proven successful in Texas and probably could be built here for $12 million to $15 million, a fraction of the cost of a new university, officials said.
“We liked it,” Moore said of the Texas facility. “It may not be what we come forward with, but it certainly gave us food for thought.”
Greater use of computers and other technology could help solve one of Lake County’s biggest education problems: transportation. The county is so large and spread out, officials said, that telecommuting may be the best way for some people to do college-level work.
“This may be an opportunity to really take a step ahead of the curve and look at non-traditional ways to do business at the university level,” said Sen. Martin Butler (R-Park Ridge), a member of the Senate Education Committee.
Officials say that while Lake County is the main area they seek to serve–given its size and booming population growth–any new college services could draw students from northern Cook County and eastern McHenry County.
The subcommittee has spent the past six months talking to area employers, high school students, county officials and others in Lake County to determine the types of programs they want. In a first for the state board, the panel had an outside firm prepare a market survey to determine residents’ opinions.
Waukegan residents have been pushing to attract a college to the empty News-Sun building downtown. Moore said that building could be used as a satellite facility for the new college services but would unlikely be the main building because of its inconvenient location.
The subcommittee meeting Friday will mark the first time members have reviewed all of the data they have collected since January. The panel is expected to meet again through the summer to narrow its choices. The final decision is expected in September.
