Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposed budget for next fiscal year doesn’t have to be constitutionally approved until May 31, so Eastern faculty are reserving judgment.

David Radavich, president of University Professionals of Illinois, said it is too early to tell how effective Blagojevich’s budget will be, but the public will know a lot more in six months.

“This is an inherited budget,” Radavich said. “This is really the worst budget in 50 years, so this is going to take some time to get out of. It’s very difficult to keep an eye on.”

The state deficit is $5 billion for Fiscal Year 2004.

Eastern’s share is $1.4 million in cuts for this fiscal year and more than $4 million next year.

Some support the proposals, while others disapprove, but the greater percentage of faculty believes an assumption cannot be made until more time has passed.

The UPI endorsed Blagojevich last spring. In a UPI-supplied questionnaire, Blagojevich was asked for his comments dealing with a per student expenditures statistic that ranked Illinois 47 out of 50 in spending.

“I strongly believe that the state can improve its share of spending on higher education, both for the state university system and the community college system. As governor, I would address and reverse the neglect that the state has shown towards both its higher education system in general,” he responded.

With a $112 million proposed cut from the $2 billion higher education budget, some faculty members believe Blagojevich’s methods could be destructive.

In the budget address last month, Blagojevich said he wanted to trim administrative bloat or excess.

Speech communication professor Joe Heumann said getting rid of the bloat would be counterproductive because the cuts are ultimately in the hands of administrators.

“They are not going to cut anything but the necessary services to students,” said Heumann, who gave increased class sizes and less faculty as examples.

However, interim President Lou Hencken previously said the university would take the necessary steps to avoid decreasing academic quality. A selective job-hiring freeze is in place for non-faculty members, Hencken said, but he admitted retiring faculty would most likely not be replaced.

And much is dependent on the final budget decisions. Until then, Charles Delman,UPI chapter vice president and mathematics professor, said his UPI sources in Springfield say it’s “too early to draw conclusions.”

English professor David Carpenter said the Republicans, especially former Gov. George Ryan, are mainly at fault because they held the governor’s office since 1973.

“Now we’re faced with a huge deficit,” Carpenter said. “And education takes a hit unfortunately because, after all, education is Illinois’ future in a real substantive way.”

Radavich said although most people are frustrated, Blagojevich has not defended higher education more aggressively, some faculty support the cuts because it means luxurious trustee benefits, or the administrative bloat the governor had previously discussed.

But that dollar figure is not immense enough to topple Eastern’s budget woes, as the university will probably look to make ends meet by raising tuition. Faculty members such as associate chemistry professor Barbara Lawrence would like to see taxes cut.

However, Tom Schafer, a spokesman for the governor, said a recent general commission poll showed 84 percent agreed with Blagojevich’s current plan that places an emphasis on public safety, health care and education without raising state income or sales taxes.

Carpenter said: “(Blagojevich) can’t as easily cut money from health services from senior citizen services (as higher education). So yeah, the effects of the cuts in education are not as immediate or blatantly apparent if he were to cut from social services.”