Students sit on floors in the crowded classrooms of crumbling buildings, while departments struggle with less teachers and fewer classes because of slashed funding.

Meanwhile, the governor is in the spotlight, taking flak from University officials and politicians for making tough cuts intended to dig the state out of a $5 billion deficit.

This is the script of the political, yet crucial battle being fought over the University's budget.

While Gov. Rod Blagojevich didn't answer requests for an interview, he has repeatedly called for state government to tighten its belt. The University lost $58 million — $27.9 million alone from the Urbana-Champaign campus this year.

Blagojevich made the cuts — like he did at nearly every other state agency — saying he wouldn't stand for administrative bloat anywhere. Illinois' flagship school was no exception.

"He's not willing to reconsider the fact that there are ways to cut spending internally," said Becky Carroll, spokeswoman for Blagojevich's office of Management and Budget.

"There's ways to trim fat," sje said repeatedly.

And the University's top brass say they were doing that even before Blagojevich came into power in January 2003. Thomas Hardy, spokesman for the University system, said administrative expenses are down 16 percent in the past two years.

But administrators say decreases in higher education funding statewide have caught up with Blagojevich. He has said he doesn't want cuts to affect the classrooms.

Still, academic dollars have been slashed 9 percent since 2002, Hardy said.

His cuts aren't just making the bureaucracy do with less.

"It's not as simple as constantly banging away on a 'cut administration' drum," Hardy said. "We have done that ... but at a certain point cuts as these levels diminish the academic offerings and academic programs."

And that has everyone crying foul.

Hard times

All states and the federal government have been hit hard. Everyone understands that the burden must be shared.

Here at the University, the dwindling economy means a loss in state dollars. Although no one wants that to hurt the quality of education, the budget cuts have struck in blatant ways.

"Make no mistake, none of these decisions were made to improve the quality of education here," said Robin Kaler, spokeswoman for the Urbana-Champaign campus.

Officials estimated last spring that 900 faculty and staff jobs would be cut or go unfilled at the three campuses. Fewer people are running grant programs and alumni relations.

Class sizes have gone up 4.4 percent yet 338 courses have been cut.

Some instructors are teaching for free and others stand in massive halls lecturing on subjects that were once learned in small discussion sections.

Computing labs close earlier and library books pile on floors because there isn't staff to sort them.

That's only complicated by the largest group of freshmen on record.

"The administration has worked diligently within the current constraints of the budget," said University trustee Marjorie Sodemann at Thursday's Board of Trustees meeting. "Unfortunately, we've had to drop courses, lose faculty and the students are the ones that pay."

Dwindling dollars

The University system is asking the state for $73.9 million for the fiscal year 2005 — a 7.3 percent jump, according to the budget request approved Thursday by the Board of Trustees. But unless Illinois' economy turns around, increasing funds isn't a likely move, Carroll said.

"I think our line has been pretty consistently that we're not out of the woods yet," Carroll said.

And that has been a pattern the past two years.

For fiscal year 2004, the Illinois Higher Education Board, which submits budget requests to the the governor's office, wanted $163 million more, but got $85 million less, said Don Sevener, board spokesman. For fiscal year 2003, the board pleaded for a $147 million increase, but lost $99 million.

And while money for human services has risen 47.6 percent since 1990, higher education funding has dropped a half percent, according to state statistics.

So if state funding continues to lag, the University's strongest alternative for revenue is a tuition increase.

"(Requesting more state dollars) is a nice thought ... but what is going to happen is we are going to likely continue to ask students and their families to bear a larger share of the cost of education," said Urbana-Champaign Provost Richard Herman.

Jacking up the price

Blagojevich has been very vocal about wanting to keep tuition low. He campaigned on it. In front of his voters, he has pushed for tuition increase caps.

"For too long students and their families have had to bear an unfair burden of tuition increase after tuition increase," Carroll said.

But some say the governor, while cutting state funding, has also knocked out other leg of funding the University has to stand on — tuition.

The governor has even faced allegations that he has pressured higher education officials to limit the tuition increase passed in July to 5 percent. University officials wanted 8 percent.

"The governor told the Board of Higher Education not to allow increases in tuition of anything more than either three or five percent and the University wanted to increase the tuition 8 percent," said Jim Nowlan, a political analyst at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

Carroll declined to comment on the accusations.

"Rumors are rumors. You can't confirm or deny them, and who knows," she said, but added "the governor is definitely going to give his advice."

Elsewhere in the nation, tuition has jumped by double digit figures. Indiana University raised prices 22.6 percent this year, according to the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Ohio State tuition rose 14.3 percent.

Blagojevich makes no apologies for his hard-nosed stance on keeping tuition low. He has stressed, and Carroll repeated, that state agencies have to do more with less.

Setting priorities

But some state programs have been spared by Blagojevich's axe. He campaigned on a pro-K-12 education, pro-healthcare, pro-public safety platform.

And he's sticking to his guns. The governor has already pumped $400 million more into failing local school districts, Carroll said.

But University supporters question the move. They say he doesn't understand higher education. They claim Blagojevich doesn't grasp the benefits of educating a future workforce.

"How much does the governor understand? Very little, and I'm being kind," said former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, now a fellow at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

In the early '90s — Edgar's term in office — Illinois also faced a recession. Edgar too was unpopular for budget cuts he made. But he said he made slashed across the board.

"I think he's being shortsighted," Edgar said. "I think long term you have a real risk that you could damage something that has a real value for the viability of the state."

He said he thinks Blagojevich has singled out higher education for the chopping block while protecting other hot-button voter concerns. Edgar claims the governor knows struggling Universities don't pull at heartstrings like a floundering elementary school.

Carroll has a ready answer.

"Comparing the fiscal state of the higher ed system to our local school districts is like comparing a watermelon to a raisin," Carroll fires back.

She dismissed the allegations as political pot-shots, but still took a stab at Republicans who controlled the governor's mansion for nearly 30 years before Blagojevich. She blamed them for the current budget shortfall.

But Democrats control nearly all of state government now. The party practically owns the legislature and only one statewide elected office — the treasurer — is still held by a Republican.

Democratic state representative Naomi Jakobsson, from the 103rd District which contains the University, defended the governor saying Blagojevich didn't create Illinois' fiscal mess.

"The budget crisis was one that he inherited, we inherited," Jakobsson said. "It's incumbent on all of us to work together and see how what he's implementing works."

Looking ahead

Jakobsson said she campaigned on the assembly floor for more dollars for the University. But while some state officials say they plan to ask for more money during the legislature's veto session this fall, Jakobsson wouldn't comment on the University's chances for additional dollars.

However, Lex Tate, a University system spokeswoman, said it bluntly.

"I don't think there's any money to be had," Tate said. "I don't think anybody believes that they're going to be able to go into the veto session and walk out with millions of dollars."

So instead University officials wait. Students will be cramped in classrooms, computer labs close, programs shut down and instructors — Tate included — will teach for free.

"It's not like we closed Liberal Arts and Sciences, (but) it's that you take one here, one there, three here and before you know it there's just a general carving away at things," Tate said.

Next year's budget will be crucial, administrators say. They worry how many more cuts the University can sustain.

"We will be arguing as forcefully as we can for our need to have the resources to maintain the quality that Illinois expects of us," said Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Nancy Cantor.