Eastern president David Glassman, along with his counterparts at Illinois’ other universities and community colleges, will be participating in a press conference at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Illinois State Capitol Blue Room in Springfield.

“The purpose of the press conference is to reiterate how important higher education institutions are to the future of Illinois and how the budgetary impact is and will continue to jeopardize higher education’s ability to achieve their mission with excellence,” Glassman said.

July 1 marks the beginning of the new fiscal year. The state has not yet passed a budget for the current fiscal year and higher education institutions have not yet seen a full appropriation.

On Friday, Eastern’s Board of Trustees passed a preliminary budget for FY’17, with the state budget uncertainty causing “significant difficulty in identifying what numbers we should be using,” according to Paul McCann, interim vice president for business affairs.

Jason Howell can be reached at 581-2812 or at jlhowell3@eiu.edu