Via my EMU news feed, I came across “Report questions university response to budget crisis,” a generic enough headline, but from the Chicago Flame Online, which I believe is the student paper at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Here are the opening paragraphs, which explains why I came across it:
An outside report analyzing the financial condition of the University of Illinois is making the rounds around campus.
The report, titled “Analysis of the Financial Condition of the University of Illinois System,” was written at the request of the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers for the United Faculty Organizing Committee at UIC.
Its author is Howard Bunsis, Professor of Accounting at Eastern Michigan University.
In the report, Dr. Bunsis analyzes the University of Illinois system’s finances based on public financial statements. It mostly looks at the audited financial statements of the University of Illinois’ combined campuses, but it does some analysis of UIC’s campus, too.
On the one hand, Bunsis obviously has expertise. On the other, as the article points out, Bunsis also has a pretty obvious point of view here.
The report is not without its biases. It was made for an academic union and in its conclusion Bunsis states that “the issue of furloughs is further evidence of the need for collective bargaining.”
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