University of Illinois Chancellor Robert Jones says he’s still repairing the damage that the recently ended state budget impasse caused to the Urbana campus.

Northeastern Illinois University announced Friday its employees will have to take five furlough days this month due to the ongoing state budget impasse, triggering a new state rule that requires the school to terminate hundreds of student workers from their on-campus jobs.

Over the summer, Hannah Meisel took a look at how the lack of a full state budget was affecting businesses in university towns. This week, Illinois Issues is revisiting that story because as the budget impasse drags on, several universities could face fiscal crisis and college-town economies continue to suffer.

About 50 faculty, staff and students from Western Illinois University gathered with community members Monday in Macomb for a demonstration to call for full state funding of higher education.

State law requires the University of Illinois to submit a budget by the end of the fiscal year.  But it's not clear what's coming from the state, if anything, due to the budget impasse.  In a U of I Trustees committee meeting Monday, Chief Financial Officer Walter Knorr said the school will rely on its fiscal 2015 figure when submitting its budget plan for FY 2017.