Eastern, like so many other state institutions, shares a direct relationship with the state’s budget, and lately that relationship has been strained at best.

The university is working to cut $2.3 million out of this year’s budget while crossing its fingers that next year’s budget will not be reduced.

Unfortunately, projections from the state don’t look good, but Eastern’s enrollment applications do offer some hope.

Last week Stephen Schnorf, Gov. Ryan’s budget director and an Eastern graduate, gave the university a reason to uncross its digits.

Schnorf said next year’s state budget will be “bloody.”

“It’s probably going to be the bloodiest budget that the state has seen introduced since 1992,” Schnorf told the Springfield State Journal Register last week.

That prediction does not bode well for Eastern. The university will now have to rely more on new recruits in next year’s budget battle.

Last week university administrators said freshmen applications are up about 31 percent in comparison to this time last year.

That may be the silver lining to a gloomy budget picture. Interim President Lou Hencken’s goal of increasing next year’s enrollment by at least 250 students has become increasingly more important when considering the early budget recommendations for next year.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education has not prescribed big funding increases for any of the state universities next year. Eastern has been recommended to receive a state increase of just 2.8 percent, while the university is supposed to boost it’s own income by 10.9 percent.

Eastern is asking its Board of Trustees for a 5 percent tuition increase, and next year Eastern will begin charging seniors and graduates students by the credit hour. Those changes are expected to increase university funds, but they may not be enough to bridge the gap created by a struggling economy.

As the budget battle gets bloodier, Eastern’s need for new recruits will only grow.

The university needs to make sure it does whatever it can to get the students who have shown interest in the university to actually attend Eastern. Every new student who chooses Eastern brings his or her tuition and fee dollars to the university. With the state coffers drying up, these new recruits will join the lifeblood of this university … the students.