Hundreds of Chicago State University Employees Laid Off

CHICAGO, IL - More than a third of the staff at Chicago State University has been laid off just after the school received long-awaited funding from the state, according to reports in the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.

The school has been the hardest hit by the government's inability to pass a budget.

The 300 layoffs are effective immediately and include jobs being cut from every area of the university including police officers, counselors and carpenters.

"It is not disheartening for the future of the university. The university has been here 150 years and will continue to be here," Chicago State President Thomas Calhoun Jr. said in an interview with the Tribune.

The cuts will save the school approximately $2 million a month.

Lawmakers approved $20.1 million in emergency funding for the university, that had nearly run out of money and had to end the semester two weeks early to ensure students were able to graduate on time, however the money proved futile.

Calhoun told the Tribune the money was less than what the school needed and also arrived later than needed.

Bob Bionaz, an associate professor of history at Chicago State, and the university chapter president of the University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100, which represents 330 university employees, mostly faculty and a few academic service professionals called the amount of layoffs, "just an incredible number," in an interview with the Sun-Times.

Faculty members have not been affected by the layoffs yet.

Speakers at the university's commencement on Thursday commended the student body for putting pressure on politicians through demonstrations. On Saturday, protestors marched down Lake Shore Drive to demand the firing of Police Det. Dante Servin and protest the CSU layoffs.

The university serves mostly minority and low-income students and depends on the state for 30 percent of its budget.

Read the full Chicago Tribune report here.

Read the full Chicago Sun-Times report here.