News Local/State
University of Illinois leaders are recommending no increase in tuition for in-state students for the third straight year. If approved by university Trustees at their meeting in Chicago next week, this proposal would mark the 3-campus system’s longest rate freeze in 40 years. Tuition would go up 1.8 percent for graduate students, and out-of-state and international students.
News Local/State
The Champaign County Board will discuss three possible referendum questions concerning its financially strapped county nursing home at a special meeting Tuesday evening. The choices are --- help the nursing home with a special sales tax or a property tax increase …. or give the county permission to sell or close the facility. One of the three proposals could wind up on the ballot in the April 4th local elections.
News Local/State
Edward Feser had been the interim provost for the University's Urbana campus since September 2015. He will serve as provost and executive vice president at Oregon State University in Corvalis.
News Local/State
A group of lawmakers charged with revamping Illinois' property-tax-reliant school funding formula has been meeting since summer, facing a deadline of February 1 to come up with an alternative. But the group isn’t moving fast enough for State Senator Andy Manar of Bunker Hill in Macoupin County. He’s the leading Democrat on the commission. He’s also considering running for governor.
News Local/State
Illinois legislators return to Springfield Monday. Disagreements between Democrats and Republicans have left state government without a full budget for more than 18 months — though Senate leaders are now said be trying to hammer out a compromise.
News Local/State
A resolution on Monday night's Urbana City Council agenda, suggested by Mayor Laurel Prussing, calls for keeping the Police Training Institute at its current site in Champaign. The measure comes as Decatur philanthropist Howard Buffett has announced plans to build a new training facility in his city. Prussing was among those who worked to save PTI at the university a few years ago.
News Local/State
The Illinois women's basketball team topped Rutgers 78-41 Saturday at State Farm Center in Champaign, the Illini's second largest ever margin of victory in a Big Ten game. Freshman Petra Holešínská led Illinois with a career-high 21 points.
News Local/State
The Indiana Hoosiers calmed their fans by sending them into a frenzy. James Blackmon Jr. scored 25 points, Thomas Bryant added 20, and No. 25 Indiana snapped a three-game losing streak with a 96-80 victory over Illinois on Saturday night.
News Local/State
A new law designed to relieve the statewide shortage of teachers and substitute teachers was signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner Friday. The legislation was sponsored by State Senator Dave Luechtefeld, a Republican.
News Local/State
The state’s ongoing budget impasse has hit community colleges particularly hard, with funds to these schools and the students who attend them drastically reduced. The Illinois Community College Board is distributing $3 million in emergency aid, divided among seven campuses. Lakeland Community College in Mattoon is on the list.
