Southern Illinois U. Cuts Spending to Keep Making Its Payroll

Southern Illinois University administrators say they are facing a serious cash crunch because the state is $115-million in arrears on its monthly payments to the university, The Southern Illinoisan and other newspapers reported. The university’s president, Glenn Poshard, urged campus officials to curtail nonsalary spending to protect the university’s ability to meet its payroll. Donald Sevener, a spokesman for the Illinois Board of Higher Education, told the Belleville News-Democrat that all of the state’s public universities were facing the same sitution. The University of Illinois system “has a backlog in excess of $300-million,” he said.