Reaching, Engaging Communities to Build Support for Equity-Driven Public Policy

This summer, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford (4th District) and Representative Carol Ammons (103rd District) introduced SB 3965, the Adequate and Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities bill. Based on recommendations from the state's Equitable Funding Commission, this historic bill centers student need and considers factors not previously accounted for in higher education funding. These factors include a public university's unique mission and size, student demographics and need, and expected revenue. In determining the distance between what an institution needs to serve students versus what it expects to bring in a given year, the formula calculates the institutions “adequacy gap,” allowing the state to allocate funding in an equitable manner.   

Once SB3965 was filed, the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding (CTHEF) began organizing “listening sessions” across Illinois public university campuses. The Time is Now: Equitably Funding Our Public Universities sessions engage with university communities – college students, university faculty and staff across the state of Illinois in discussions about how more adequate and equitable institutional funding can improve student experiences and lead to more equitable outcomes in college completion and degree attainment.  

 “Community engagement provides a platform for creating awareness of public policies such as SB 3965,” said Isabel Enad, a Senior Community Engagement Associate at Advance Illinois who has been collaborating with other core partners of the Coalition – the Partnership for College Completion, Young Invincibles, and Women Employed — to develop and facilitate such listening sessions. "By socializing and championing policy proposals together, our advocacy for our students' needs strengthens.” 

For Enad, engaging the community encourages widespread participation in increasing public awareness about the bill. The goal for listening sessions is to bring not only higher education leaders into dialogue about policy proposals but to engage members of the community who may not already have existing knowledge of higher education funding but are passionate about advancing access in education.  

Enad said that while the agenda of the listening sessions may differ slightly from one university to another, the primary purpose of these events is to make sure that all attendees have the information and space needed to develop their thoughts about SB 3965. This goal is kept at the core of planning for these sessions, one among many strategies community engagement uses to garner participation and interest. Each listening session is broken into two main components: the presentation on the bill itself, and a portion dedicated audience participation, whether that is a Q&A and/or roundtable discussion. In addition, a post-event survey provided to participants serves as another opportunity to raise questions or express opinions on the bill and learn about more ways to engage with the CTHEF.   

“We are at a critical time in higher education and are actively working to ensure that funding is adequate and equitable,” Enad said. “This means that people should have the opportunity to ask questions, critique, and advocate for this bill.”

A recent listening session held in October at Northern Illinois University (NIU) featured a presentation, panel discussion and roundtable discussions. Women Employed President and CEO Cherita Ellens moderated the program’s panel that included NIU President Dr. Lisa Freeman, NIU faculty member Dr. Simón Weffer, Hernandez, and NIU student Jatavion Young. The panel discussion explored the importance of students having access to the supports and resources they need to persist in attaining their college degree. Young, a junior, shared how some of his friends have been unable to continue their college education due to a lack of resource support. Were the bill to pass, Young said it would be important for additional funding to be invested 'in programs that address individual student needs—academic, financial, and mental health. “Without resources, students don’t know where to go,” he said. 

Jelani Saadiq, who leads Government Relations at Advance Illinois, said that hosting listening sessions such as these makes a difference in helping legislation move forward.  While community engagement teams work to build coalitions with those directly impacted by legislation, government relations teams push for policy and legislative change with the support of coalitions. The primary goal is to ensure that any systems-level change reflects the input of those who are most impacted by the policies. The listening sessions serve as an avenue for members of the community to learn the intricacies of a topic and ask questions. When community members understand a topic, they are prepared to participate in the elevation of a related bill. 

“Higher education policy should reflect the unique needs of universities in Illinois,” Enad said. “Listening sessions are an important strategy in ensuring that policy can respond to on-the-ground experiences as accurately as possible.” 

Eucarol Juarez is the Senior Communications Associate for Advance Illinois.

Learn more about the Coalition for Transforming Higher Educations Funding’s The Time is Now Listening Sessions.

Five Things To Know About SB3965

Illinois’ future depends on a higher education system that is adequately resourced and able to provide affordable, high-quality programs to college students from every background and corner of the state. To date, however, many institutions are dramatically underfunded, resulting in public universities having to advocate for their own funding with no transparency on the amount of funding each university receives or why they receive it. And while institutional funding often sees across-the-board increases or decreases, the current funding approach does not take into account student needs, actual costs, or institutional revenue. It is merely ensuring that all institutions receive the same percentage increase on their prior funding, further entrenching inequities rather than solving them.

The solution? SB3965, the Adequate and Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities Act. This new bill represents the next step toward an Illinois public university funding approach that focuses both on ensuring institutions have the funding they need to support their unique missions while ensuring they have adequate funding to serve their diverse student populations and build adequacy, equity, stability, and accountability and transparency into the process. The formula centers students by considering the various factors that contribute to their success and funds institutions with those evidence-based insights in mind.

But that’s not all. Investments made through the Adequate and Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities Act are poised to strengthen enrollment, increase completion rates, and reduce the time it takes to complete degree-obtaining programs. It is an innovative approach to postsecondary funding that will transform our system for the better. So, here are five things to know about SB3965.

1. It calculates a unique Adequacy Target for all eligible public institutions that incorporates student need. Instead of political negotiations driving distribution decisions, the formula factors in the costs needed to support individual student needs for critical academic and student support services. This ensures that students will have the programs, services, and resources they need to be successful.

2. It aims to close equity gaps. Understanding that there continues to be deep and persistent gaps among some student populations compared to their peers in the state, the formula addresses those gaps through a number of components. Adjustments throughout the formula are made in a data-driven manner that looks at the current gaps in enrollment and retention for targeted student groups and adjusts the funding needed accordingly. Through student-needs adjustments and funds for universities to provide holistic supports, the formula may help to close equity gaps in enrollment, persistence, and graduation.

3. It considers the uniqueness of our public universities. This proposed formula factors in the diverse and specific needs of different institutions through institution-level adjustments. For example, smaller institutions would get an adjustment to address the fact that they cannot take advantage of economies of scale. There are also adjustments based on the level of research each institution engages in. Additionally, universities that serve large concentrations of students who have been historically underrepresented from our university systems will receive an additional weight to support these students.

4. It embeds accountability and transparency into Illinois’ public university funding. SB3965 includes recommendations for an innovative Accountability and Transparency Framework to increase transparency from the start. Spending plans and reporting ensure that new funds are targeted towards critical academic and student support services. By creating this kind of review committee, it confirms that universities are making progress toward their goals and sees to it that new dollars are spent on resources that are shown to close equity gaps

5. It’s setting the tone for the whole country! Illinois would be the first to implement an evidence-based adequacy model that accounts for the true costs of serving the students in our state, moving away from base-plus models that perpetuate inequities and from performance-based funding models that negatively impact outcomes for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.

Read more about SB3695

Passing and funding this bill are critical and will result in an estimated $1.4 billion in additional funding over 10-15 years to ensure all universities have adequate resources, over 29,000 additional university graduates moving through the system, and more than $6.3 billion in additional state taxes paid over the lifetime of these graduates.

Racquel Fullman is the Communications Coordinator for Women Employed, a core member of the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding. 

The Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding is a group of like-minded individuals and organizations across Illinois who believe that by advancing a public university funding model that prioritizes racial and socioeconomic equity, then we will see statewide increases in higher education equity; through better-resourced institutions serving more representative student populations, more resources directed to colleges serving Black, Latinx, low-income, rural and first-generation college students, and increased investment in higher education. For more information, visit transformhigheredil.org.