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The Illinois State Capitol building was flooded with faculty and students from Illinois public universities, including Eastern, to rally for more equitable funding in higher education Thursday.
The focus was Illinois House Bill 1581 and Illinois Senate Bill 13. The legislation is called the Adequate and Equitable Public University Funding Act, also known as the funding formula.
The Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding organized the event, which was known as the “2026 Higher Education Advocacy Day,” according to the coalition’s website.
As of Friday, HB 1581 was in the House Rules Committee, and SB 13 was in the Senate Executive Committee.
The math behind the funding formula was first published in a report by the Illinois Commission on Equitable Public University Funding in March 2024.
The first step of the funding formula involves determining the adequacy target for each university. The report defines the adequacy target as the full amount of money required for the university to provide equitable and adequate education.
The resource profile accounts for the total amount of state appropriations a university has been granted, the amount of money students pay in tuition and fees and any grants or donations the university is given.
The difference between the university’s resource profile and its adequacy target is known as the adequacy gap.
As of February 2025, EIU was 61% fully funded, according to the funding formula. This put EIU’s adequacy gap at 39%.
Faculty and students from public universities across the state fill the Illinois State Capitol Rotunda on Thursday to show support for the Adequate and Equitable Public University Funding Act. If passed, the act would change the way that the total amount of state funding for each public university is determined.
Eastern President Jay Gatrell spoke to a house committee about HB 1581 in March to express support for the bill.
“The reality is that regional public universities serve a significantly greater proportion of low-income, first-generation and underserved students than our nation’s flagship campuses do,” Gatrell said he told the house committee in March. “For that reason, higher education funding, like the K-12 model, should account for these disparities.”
Upwards of 20 Eastern students from a health systems course traveled to the capitol Thursday for the advocacy day. Assistant professor of nursing Drew Kirkley teaches the course, which is also known as NUR 4412.
Kirkley said a big part of the course involves learning about and participating in government issues with a focus on healthcare.
“A lot of times, we try to focus in the class on healthcare kind of things, but this really goes back to their education. We provide a lot of really valuable nurses for our area, and we’d like to continue to do that,” Kirkley said.
Kirkley said the nursing program’s continuous growth has resulted in the need for additional resources, like new technology in classrooms. Increased funding would help with the acquisition of additional resources, he said.
“As we start to get bigger, we’re going to need those resources to be up to date with the newest technology, so our nurses can hit the field running,” Kirkley said.
He also said that the funding formula would be beneficial for the university in general.
“Being able to fund our budget, not just nursing, but throughout the whole Eastern Illinois, because once one program is effective, everything is effective,” Kirkley said.
Senior Nursing major Resse Morford watches a rally for more equitable funding in higher education in the Rotunda of the Illinois State Capitol on Thursday.
Senior nursing student Reese Morford said more funding could allow for a better lab for simulations.
President of the EIU Chapter of University Professionals of Illinois Billy Hung said having people from so many universities was a “show of force.”
“This problem affects all the public universities,” he said. “Having everyone here to speak with one voice makes us a lot harder to ignore.”
Hung said more funding would help support the plan for a new life sciences building at Eastern. He said the plan for the building has been in the works but has repeatedly been put on hold.
“When I interviewed for a job in 2007, I was told we would be getting a new life sciences building,” Hung said. “The state needs to deliver its share of the responsibility.”
Assistant professor of history Aura Jirau Arroyo was another UPI member present at the rally.
She said she has seen that students are “underserved,” with facilities not being updated and a lack of financial support and mental health support.
Arroyo said the department needs more software and infrastructure to provide the best opportunities for students. She said history will play a large role digitally going forward.
“With adequate funding, we would have more equipment to make that happen for the 21st century,” she said.
Krishna Daravath, a master’s student studying computer technology and the Eastern association of international students president, said more funding could create resources on campus to help international student enrollment.
“Our school faces a very difficult challenge for growing international students, and we have very limited resources on campus,” Daravath said.
A group of upwards of 10 EIU faculty and students spoke with Illinois Sen. Chapin Rose as part of the organized outreach after the rally.
Rose provided a statement of his position on HB 1581 to The Daily Eastern News on April 1.
“There are still important tweaks that need to be made, especially when it comes to affordability for students and colleges,” Rose said. “I look forward to being part of those conversations.”
The EIU Student Senate unanimously passed two resolutions calling for the reinstatement of librarian and instructor Michele McDaniel and biology professor Thomas Hu at its meeting on Wednesday.
McDaniel and Hu were two of the 23 annually contracted instructors and four academic support professionals who learned that their contracts would not be renewed following an email from Eastern President Jay Gatrell on Oct. 14, 2025.
These mark the second and third times that the Senate has passed resolutions calling for faculty reinstatement. The first instance came from a meeting last October for early childhood education professor Brianne Eads.
Eads was reinstated after a professor in the same department said that they were retiring after the contract nonrenewals had already been announced.
According to the resolution, McDaniel works as an education and business librarian and is the coordinator of the Ballenger Teachers Center. She leads instruction sessions about Booth Library resources, and those sessions drew over 1,100 students in total in the past year.
The resolution also mentions the $20,000 from projects and grants that McDaniel has helped the library acquire in her time at Eastern.
She spoke to the Senate during the public comment section of the meeting about the impact of her leaving.
According to McDaniel, she taught 23 sessions with 550 students in the fall, and as of the meeting, she has taught 14 sessions so far this semester with 11 more scheduled.
“The number of classes I see each year is a testament to the relationships I’ve painstakingly built with EIU faculty outside the library,” McDaniel said. “I’ve spent the last eight and a half years becoming an expert in the resources needed to support the college of education and children’s literature curriculum.”
Outside of classes, McDaniel said she spends time with students making lesson plans, resource collecting and research.
“I have a very difficult time envisioning the library without a dedicated education librarian,” McDaniel said. “Eliminating my position will help the bottom line in the university budget, but it’s the students who ultimately, I feel, will pay the price.”
She said the personal impact of the nonrenewal has made her worry about the future of her family as her husband, instructor Ryan McDaniel, is also an annually contracted faculty member.
“We now fear whether his job will survive another round of cuts,” McDaniel said.
As a result, she said their family has considered moving to find stable employment.
“Grieving not just the job that I love but the stable and predictable way of life this job has provided for my family,” she said.
The resolution was cosigned by 34 people, including SGA members, students and faculty.
Senator Jack Williams, a cosigner of the bill and student in the college of education, spoke on McDaniel’s impact.
“I’ve had a class with Michelle McDaniel where she came to talk to us and she does a phenomenal job of explaining Booth Library resources,” Williams said. “I think that losing her will just be an absolute disgrace to this university.”
Senator Valerie Harmon said the business major program needs a dedicated librarian due to its increase in enrollment.
Professor Thomas Hu, like McDaniel, also had his contract non-renewed.
According to the resolution, which was signed by 64 students, Hu is the primary instructor for anatomy and physiology II.
Without Hu, there are only two instructors to teach both anatomy and physiology I and anatomy and physiology II.
Anatomy and physiology II, which draw 72 students a semester, is required or advised for students with degrees in biology, exercise science and nursing, according to the resolution.
Senator Nyla Williams said the courses are foundational for students going into the medical field. She said there is a requirement for students to understand and explain the complexity of anatomy and physiology.
She spoke about her time in class with Hu and about how he demonstrated these traits by giving an example of how well he explained anatomy during cadaver sessions.
“Throughout the semester, Dr. Hu demonstrated these strengths,” Williams said.
Williams said Hu also helped to make sure she understood what was taught.
“His dedication to student learning was evident throughout the semester,” Williams said.
She said the absence of Hu will be a big loss for students in the future.
“I hope this administration will take these concerns into consideration and review the decision to not reinstate Dr. Hu,” Williams said. “He demonstrates what it means to be an educator who prioritizes student learning and academic success.”
The Student Senate also passed a constitutional amendment that removed language preventing members of the executive board from serving on the University Board or from serving as a resident assistant, senior staff assistant or assistant resident director at the same time.
The change was made because the original language limited potential candidates for SGA positions.