This letter is in response to “Rein in your promises, governor” (Editorial, Feb. 20). To quote a portion of the editorial, the writer said, referring to Illinois community colleges, “But reality is that none of them is in dire financial straits, and some of them are fatter than hogs.”
Southeastern Illinois College, a small rural community college in Harrisburg, Ill., is one of the state’s oldest community colleges and has the dubious honor of being the poorest of the poor. But being poor dollarwisedoes not mean we are poor qualitywise. Our graduates include federal and state legislators, a Pulitzer Prize winner, physicians, lawyers, judges, educators and countless ordinary citizens. Data from universities to which our graduates transfer indicate that our former students do as well or better than the universities’ native students.
Currently temporary facilities make up 13 percent of the college’s total square footage. Our campus represents 1.2 percent of the total square footage within the Illinois Community College System. Programs housed in temporary facilitiesinclude welding, agriculture, forestry, industrial maintenance, computer network technology, game management, urban tree care, coal-mining technology and truck driving.
For fiscal year 2001, Southeastern received $31,421 (less than 1 percent) additional dollars for credit hour and equalization funding. The total increase of all funds received by Southeastern from the state was less than l percent.
To say that no community college is in dire financial straits is the equivalent of saying that no newspaper in the state is struggling financially simply because the Chicago Tribune is not. I recognize that there are community colleges within the state with large enrollments and fine facilities. I applaud them for their ability to provide a quality learning environment. But the writer of the editorial should not assume that all community colleges in Illinois have this ability. I know what a “fat hog” is, and we are no “fat hog.”
You mentioned the hard times that have fallen on some downstate nursing homes, the poor salaries being received by those who provide home care and poor families trying to move off public aid. Southeastern is attempting, with very limited financial resources, to serve many of these same people with very limited financial resources. The health and welfare problems faced by Illinois citizens can never be solved by an undereducated population.
