college students

CARBONDALE - An official at Southern Illinois University says a student accused earlier this month of belonging to a white supremacist neo-Nazi group is no longer enrolled in the school.

Enrollment in colleges and universities continued to decline across the state last year, according to figures released by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Overall, undergraduate enrollment decreased by 2 percent, with even steeper drops at public universities and community colleges.

Schools defying this trend include those focused on medical professions, such as City Colleges of Chicago's Malcolm X campus. Mark Potter, the provost, says its home in the medical district makes it more attractive.

College students and faculty in western Illinois will get more travel abroad opportunities because of a U.S. Department of Education grant.  Western Illinois University officials say the grant of over $400,000 dollars will benefit their school and also Spoon River College in Canton.  WIU officials are directing the grant, which covers three years of academic travel.

About 260 Northeastern Illinois University students may be forced out of their campus jobs.

That’s because of a new rule put in place as a result of the ongoing Illinois state budget impasse - and it has implications for every public university in the state.

Since January First - Illinois universities haven’t been getting any state money.

To save cash - NEIU is asking its staff to take furlough days. But a new state rule put in place in December makes that process more complicated.

There are 9,469 students enrolled at Western Illinois University this spring semester. It's the first time this century Western's student body has dropped below 10,000.

About 200 students protested in the Illinois Capitol rotunda Wednesday.  They’re part of the Illinois Coalition to Invest in Higher Education.

The group wanted to show lawmakers the importance of funding colleges and universities, as well as MAP grants for students.  

One of the protestors was Kiasee Ray,  a freshman at Dominican University in River Forest. She says the MAP grant is the reason she's in college today.

The ongoing state budget impasse, now in its second year, has been particularly tough for low-income college students who rely on the state’s Monetary Award Program -- known as the MAP grant -- to help cover tuition. The state has delivered only a fraction of the money promised for those grants, and schools have had to choose between covering the grants using their own reserves or billing the students. The latter choice leaves campus financial aid officers with the task of breaking the bad news to students. We asked Sue Swisher, executive director of financial aid at St. Xavier University in Chicago, to tell us how those conversations go.

Colleges and universities are again deciding whether to front grant money to low-income students who are supposed to be receiving state aid as Illinois' budget remains uncertain.
 
A survey recently released by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission suggests some schools that covered grants in the fall aren't guaranteeing to this spring. The commission administers the grants through the Monetary Award Program.
 

If you haven’t submitted your student’s FAFSA, you need to do it immediately. But this year, it’s easier than ever to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. We talked to two experts about how students and families can get help filing this form and applying for college and financial aid: Jacqueline Moreno, managing director of college access initiatives at the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, and Manuel Talavera, ISAC Corps coordinator.

Illinois colleges and universities have cut staff, eliminated programs and threatened to close … all because they've gone 9 months without money from state government. As people rallied in Springfield Wednesday to push for state cash, there was news of more possible layoffs.

As the Illinois budget stalemate enters its tenth month, a high school counselor sees the impasse having an impact on her students’ college choices.  

Illinois lawmakers heard from an assortment of higher education leaders asking for funding.   Higher education officials used terms like starving, dismantling and “economic suicide” as they tried to persuade state senators to find some way to heal the budget impasse.

The University of Illinois is offering tips for students who may be spending spring break traveling to areas where the mosquito-borne Zika virus is prevalent.

College students are caught up in the political battle over the state's budget. Those who are eligible for tuition grants haven't received them this school year because the government didn't fund them. 

A bipartisan deal to cut $300 million in spending in Illinois is set to affect college students, as well as Chicago residents with sickle cell anemia.

The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees has approved a 5% tuition hike for incoming undergraduate students next year.

If you’re an adult of a certain age, the measles vaccine you got as a kid might not be enough. 

Illinois Central College has an offering to help new and returning students register for fall semester.

Illinois Republican Mark Kirk says he expects the U.S. Senate to find a solution to rising student loan rates soon.