Pritzker Protects K-12 Spending From Cuts, But Advocates Say More Investment Is Needed

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker outlined a proposed budget for the next fiscal year this week that keeps state spending on both K-12 and higher education mostly flat. If approved by state lawmakers, this would be the second year in a row that Illinois hasn’t invested in its school funding formula. The formula, passed […]
Education Groups Ask Pritzker To Expand Vaccine Eligibility To Higher Ed. Employees

Faculty, staff and other advocates for Illinois colleges and universities are asking Gov. JB Pritzker to allow higher education employees to receive…
Pritzker: Higher Ed Unlikely To See Bump in COVID-19 Vaccine Priority Unless Supply Increases

PEORIA — Public university presidents recently wrote Gov. JB Pritzker, asking him to make higher education a priority area for COVID-19 vaccinations. But with only a limited number of doses available, Pritzker said he made the decision to place higher ed staff and students in the 1C class–or at least behind K-12 students. WCBU’s Tim […]
University Presidents Ask For Quicker Campus Vaccinations

The heads of colleges and universities in Illinois are asking Gov. JB Pritzker to move higher education faculty and staff up to 1B in the vaccination…
U Of I System Enrollment Surpasses 90K Students

Enrollment at the University of Illinois system this year exceeded 90,000 students for the first time. University officials say the increase marks the eighth year in a row of record breaking enrollment numbers. This year’s enrollment gains come in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn. Combined enrollment at the Urbana, Chicago and […]
Midwest University Leaders Brace For Decline In International Student Enrollment

URBANA – University leaders from across the Midwest say they’re concerned about a drop in international student enrollment this fall, given new restrictions imposed on foreign students by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert Jones, Michigan State University President Samuel Stanley, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Loyola […]
Model Simulates How Quick COVID-19 Can Spread On A College Campus

A new model is cautiously optimistic about a university’s ability to control the spread of COVID-19 this fall—but that hinges largely on how much…
University Of Illinois Announces Plans To Reopen In The Fall, But Some Professors Fear For Their Safety

URBANA – The University of Illinois system, including its campuses in Urbana, Springfield and Chicago, will welcome back tens of thousands of students this fall. In an announcement Thursday, university officials laid out plans to offer a mix of in-person and online instruction. The announcement comes days after staff at the U of I’s Urbana […]
Illinois Students Fear Missing Out On College Experience As Universities Brace For Losses

URBANA – Dennis Austin is frustrated. Austin, 26, transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earlier this year. He has kidney disease and high blood pressure, and is quarantining at home with his immunocompromised mother in Chicago. He says he felt like he put himself and his family at risk when he traveled from […]
‘Their Story Matters’: How Broadcast Journalism Students In Illinois Are Reporting On COVID-19

One of Kenya Williams’s favorite classes is the broadcast journalism course she’s taking at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That’s why she was devastated when she realized all of her university classes would be moving online in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Like many institutions […]