SIUE searching for its own way

For the second time in as many years, a Metro-East legislator is pushing a bill that would separate SIU-Edwardsville from the SIU system.

State Rep. Thomas Holbrook, D-Belleville, said Friday that SIUE needs to break away from a system that puts more emphasis on the Carbondale campus.

"I think the only way the full potential will ever be recognized and realized for the Edwardsville campus is for it to be a campus unto itself," Holbrook said. "I think we truly are the second thought to the administration of SIU. It's like an appendage."

In the bill that Holbrook filed Thursday, he calls for the abolishment of the SIU Board of Trustees and the creation of a new board for each campus. Under Holbrook's bill, the SIUE campus would consist of the Edwardsville campus, the East St. Louis Higher Education campus and the School of Dental Medicine in Alton. SIUC would include the Carbondale campus and the School of Medicine in Springfield.

A similar bill was first introduced in 2003 by state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville, and was approved by the Higher Education Committee of the House with a 7-5 vote. But the bill never made it past the House floor and dissolved in spring 2003. Hoffman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that resurrecting the bill during such hard economic times might not be a good idea. Hoffman did not return multiple calls from the Daily Egyptian to comment.

Opponents of the bill, like state Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, said dividing the campuses would reduce the power for both universities. Bost, who was named the minority spokesman of the Higher Education Committee Thursday, said in the Legislature, the nine Illinois universities are referred to in order as the University of Illinois, followed by the SIU system and then the Seven Dwarves, which includes all of the other public institutions.

"If we split SIU from being the unit that it is, with multiple campuses like U of I, then it moves into that same category, and we lose valuable leverage as the second largest university," Bost said. "We are only the second largest by being together as a unit and that is the importance of remaining that way." Holbrook, who is a graduate from SIUE, said he has seen the campus grow and knows its potential is being stifled because it is a part the SIU system. Enrollment at SIUC has been on a downward trend since 1987, reaching its lowest point in 2003 at 21,387. In contrast, SIUE enrollment peaked this year at 13,935, the highest since 1975.

"I think given the resources, we will eventually grow to be as large or larger than Carbondale but you can't if you've got a stranglehold around its throat," Holbrook said.

David Gross, government affairs executive assistant to SIU President James Walker, said there are two choices in governing higher education in Illinois, either through the multi-campus system, like SIU, or a regional university, like Northern Illinois University. Because SIU is a multi-campus system, it holds more power when trying to borrow money on the bond market

"In the tough budget years that we have had, you'd be hard pressed not to say that the multi-campus system is in a better position to weather the tough economic times," Gross said. "There is a give and take there that in tough times allows the system to move forward in a way that it might not be able to if you went at it on your own."

Holbrook said the Metro-East area, which is the large metropolitan area just east of St. Louis, is the second largest metropolitan area in Illinois, next to Chicago, and it deserves a full research institution like SIUC. Instead, he said SIUE is treated like a commuter camps, something that is no longer true of the university.

The representative said he does not know how much splitting the campuses would cost the state or taxpayers.

New additions to the SIU Board of Trustees is promising, he said, with Metro-East businessman John Simmons, Edwardsville schools superintendent Ed Hightower and SIU dental school alumna Cheryl Jackson all on the board.

But still, as long as SIUE is a part of the multi-campus system, it will be never reach the height of the Carbondale campus, Holbrook said.

SIU Board of Trustees Chairman Glenn Poshard did not return multiple calls for comment.