As the budget impasse transitions through its ninth month, SIU President Randy Dunn announced via email Wednesday that the campus will eliminate 180 faculty and staff positions, 400 classes and 300 student employment positions if Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s fiscal year 2017 budget is passed. 

People with ties to the university took to social media to express their unrest with the proposed plan, which would reduce campus spending by nearly $23 million.

“This is brutal for @siuc,” Paul Pabst, a SIU alumnus who works on the Dan Patrick Show — a radio and television sports show — tweeted about the proposed cuts. “Good school and people about to be decimated.”

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Ashley Broshears, a junior from Columbia studying social work, said on Facebook: “This is just ridiculous and extremely scary. I just want to graduate and get out of this mess!”

EDITORIAL: SIU jobs are at stake, what about state lawmakers?

“At this point, I am considering moving out of Illinois and transferring into a school in Oregon because this budget impasse is ridiculous,” Paloma Navarro, a junior studying political science, wrote on a Daily Egyptian Facebook post. “Its [sic] not fair for students.”

On Twitter, SIU alumnus Todd Ellis called Dunn’s proposed elimination of programs and services “long-term bad news for the region.”

The budget stalemate between Rauner and the Democratic-led Legislature has also caused the men’s basketball team to opt out of playing in a postseason tournament this season. 

Daily Egyptian reader Bryon Johnson commented on Facebook about the absence of postseason play, writing “SIU has to worry about funding while UofI just spends $20 mil on lovie smith. Does that make sense?”

“That’s ridiculous and it must be politics,” Andrew DeJong, an SIU alumnus, commented on the Daily Egyptian’s Facebook post about the basketball team. “Does SIU somehow support Madigan and his cronies?”

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SIU basketball fan Chris N Michelle Hess also commented on the story, saying, “How is that possible? Revenue producing sport? They will make that up in the NIT at worst if they don’t make the NCAA…I hope politics are not involved with this…”

As Daily Egyptian reader Daniel Bareit put it, “What a fucked up state that cuts education funding first.” 

Join the conversation by sharing your thoughts regarding the university’s budget crisis with us on Facebook and Twitter. Your comments may appear in a future story.

Tyler Crotzer can be reached at [email protected] or 618-536-3325.