In an ongoing effort to reduce the severity of state cuts to Eastern’s budget, interim President Lou Hencken and Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations, met with 11 state legislators Tuesday in Springfield.

Nilsen lined up individual meetings with Senators Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin); Judy Myers (R-Mattoon); Vince Demuzio, Senate Assistant Minority Leader (D-Carlinville); Senate Minority Leader Emil Jones (D-Chicago); Christine Radogno (R-La Grange) and Representatives Dale Righter (R-Mattoon), Speaker of the House Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), David Wirsing (R-Sycamore), Gary Hannig (D-Benld) and Judy Erwin (D-Chicago). Nilsen and Hencken also met with Steve Schnorf, director of the Bureau of the Budget and an Eastern alumnus.

“I would say that it was very profitable as far as getting to spread the good word about Eastern,” Hencken said. “Some people say it’s the best secret in Illinois and I want to change that.”

One of the main issues legislators said they would face this spring is redistricting and its impact on this year’s elections, Nilsen said. The other is the fate of the state budget.

The legislators are burdened with a lot of the same uncertainty as state universities about the future of the state budget, Hencken said.

“There was probably not one meeting we had where we didn’t discuss something about the budget,” Hencken said, later explaining that he and Nilsen discussed with legislators budgets of this and next fiscal year and the capital projects budget.

Like Eastern and every other state-funded entity facing cuts, the legislators are waiting for Gov. George Ryan’s State of the Budget address later this month. Because of that, Hencken said, the state officials were reluctant to make predictions about whether the cuts could be lessened or the possibility of a base budget cut, which would lessen the university’s funding next year.

“They were being pretty noncommittal on that,” Hencken said. “I suspect that several of them certainly had an opinion … but I don’t think they were going to volunteer that.”

While legislators were cautious about making predictions about budget cuts for this and upcoming years, Nilsen said they did express their support for Eastern.

Nilsen and Hencken also discussed the bill intended to spread the governor’s power to cut beyond his current range, which accounts for about 25 percent of the total state budget. That bill failed in the House, in part because some representatives felt it disturbed the system of checks and balances between the legislative and executive branches of Illinois’ government.

On Tuesday the legislators asked Hencken and Nilsen about Eastern’s plan for handling the cuts, and what the university had planned for next year. Hencken said he and Nilsen explained to the legislators that many of this year’s savings – like those on shoveling snow, heating buildings and paying out accrued leave to retirees – were only one-time savings and couldn’t be counted on year after year. The administrators also discussed Eastern’s effort to boost enrollment next year, Hencken said.

Hencken and Nilsen also explained that Eastern is prioritizing equipment expenditures and deferred maintenance spending.

“Improving teaching and classrooms is first priority. New desks are last priority,” Hencken said.

One thing the legislators told Hencken and Nilsen was that economies are cyclical and downturns have to be dealt with as part of that.

Hencken said he and Nilsen thanked the senators and representatives for the General Assembly’s financial support in past years.

“Higher education has been very fortunate over the last several years to have received very good appropriations from the state and we’re very appreciative of that, Nilsen said. “I think that this year the state overall economy certainly will impact our state appropriations for fiscal year 2003.”