When the stock market crashed in 1929, people panicked. They went to their banks and withdrew every dime—at least until the banks got smart or closed. Higher education in Illinois is about to experience a similar phenomenon—a mass exodus of teaching professionals to states where they’ll have more security and be better appreciated.

Three senior faculty members of NIU’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have announced their intention to resign at the end of the semester. Their reasons all stem from a familiar two words—budget cuts.

Notice these are senior faculty, not instructors with just a year or two of experience and no tenure. And more are expected to pack up and move on if something isn’t done very quickly to improve salaries and research resources. NIU is going to lose some of its “best and brightest” to other states. They will leave from every college, every discipline and every level of experience and excellence.

So much for NIU being the western target end point of the I-5 High Tech Research Corridor.

NIU will not be the only state university to suffer. If other states’ universities are looking at NIU’s faculty with a gleam in their eyes, it’s certain they’ve taken a glance or two in the University of Illinois’ direction.

This would be a good opportunity for a state like Kentucky, which has shown overwhelming support for education, to build an excellent medical school. Just lure away U of I’s faculty with big salaries, automatic tenure, reduced teaching loads to allow for more research time—and then just give it a few years.

The state of Illinois ranks in the top 10 percent of per capita income in the United States. It ranks near the bottom in funding for education. And 33 percent of school-aged children live at or below the poverty level.

Maybe Gov. Thompson should stop spending so much time trying to get big business to locate in this state. Businesses and industries do not want to locate in Illinois if they have to look to Pennsylvania, New York or Wisconsin for people qualified to work for them or do their research. It’s more cost effective to locate where the resources are.

There won’t be any resources here if NIU and other Illinois universities continue to lose faculty members to other states because the legislature is shirking its duty. There are two more words that should become familiar to Springfield—tax increase.