Triton College is among the Illinois educational institutions that could face an operating deficit thanks to the ongoing state budget crisis.
“The college is trying to figure out how to fund itself another year without a state budget,” said William Justiz, president of the Triton College Adjunct Faculty Association, one of the unions at the school. “So they’re asking for ideas on how to handle this.”
Triton is faced with an expected $8.1 million state funding shortfall for fiscal year 2016, with $1.2 million of that from the state Monetary Award Program, or MAP, funding for some 1,100 financially needy Triton students.
Triton has already covered the $1.2 million for the current school year from its reserves. However, as the college moves into the next academic and fiscal year, administrators are trying to come up with a plan to continue serving its students if the state’s funding continues to be withheld.
Stephen Butera, a spokesperson for Triton College, said members of Triton College’s administration and board of trustees are closely monitoring the state’s ongoing budget negotiations as they pertain to the institution.
“The lack of funding from the state has created a unique and challenging set of circumstances for Triton College,” Butera said. “Members of our leadership team and Triton employees are working together to identify ways to reduce spending in a responsible way that allows Triton to continue to provide high quality education opportunities to students.”
He added that administrators will make decisions regarding future funding as the state’s budget picture comes into focus.
State legislators still have not passed a budget for the current budget cycle.
“[School administrators have] been pulling us in and showing us, ‘This is what we have and where we can get covered and what the shortfall is going to be, and this is how we’re going to try and plug the hole,'” Justiz said. “Right now, we’re all at the point where we’re throwing darts at the dartboard to see what sticks.”
Justiz declined to specify details of what the school’s administration is currently negotiating with his union, but he did say the school wants to have some kind of course of action in place before the state’s next budget cycle starts on July 1.
“I think the goal is to have something in place by June. If the state were to give money all of a sudden, the plan that we get together by then would not be needed,” he said.
Alex V. Hernandez is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
