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Hundreds of furloughed University of Illinois-Chicago professors and students demanded that state government pay the $485 million it owes the University of Illinois system and prioritize higher education in next year’s budget at a press conference on Monday.

The two-fold request reflects the fiscal trough in which state government currently finds itself and the diminished realities looming for the next fiscal year.

Facing $4.2 billion in unpaid bills — a number that could rise to as much as $6 billion by the end of June, according to Carol Knowles, spokeswoman for the comptroller’s office — many state-supported institutions and service providers are going without promised appropriations.

Hurting for their funds, UIC faculty and professional staff are taking four furlough days and senior administrators 10. A hiring freeze is in place. In January, UIC’s hospital system pulled back on a planned $650 million overhaul, according to news reports.

Knowles acknowledged the backlog owed to the university system, but said the comptroller’s office was required by law to prioritize paying the state’s debt, K-12 aid, medical reimbursements to doctors and hospitals, and then, finally, payroll. And there’s no money beyond those four items.

"Payment to higher education is important. The problem is revenues are not performing as the governor and legislature projected, and the state continues to spend more money than it takes in," Knowles said.

Governor Pat Quinn was scheduled to detail the 2010-2011 fiscal year budget Wednesday, after Chicago Journal’s weekly deadline. Preliminary documents the Quinn Administration posted online in February called for slashing total education spending in the 2010-2011 fiscal year by more than 16 percent versus last year’s appropriation.

That, in turn, could lead to tuition increases in the University of Illinois system. Stanley Ikenberry, president of the three campuses, in Urbana-Champaign, in Springfield and on Chicago’s Near West Side, floated the possibility earlier this year of a 20 percent tuition hike.

Quinn’s office did not return a phone call. The Tribune reported Wednesday morning that the governor’s budget will lean heavily on borrowing while cutting $1.3 billion in education, mostly K-12 funding, and another $300 million in aid to cities and towns.

Those who gathered Monday said the impact of the state’s fiscal crisis on UIC called into question the very viability of the institution.

"We cannot afford to allow a world-class university that provides jobs now and educates the entrepreneurs of the future to decline into mediocrity," said sociology professor Barbara Risman.

Dick Simpson, who teaches politics at the school, warned that cuts would damage the state’s ability to compete in a global economy.

"We are facing dire consequences in the next few years," said Simpson, who also writes a monthly column on politics for Chicago Journal.

Senior Shawn Murray, involved in undergraduate student government at UIC, said cuts would trickle down to students trying to enroll in the classes they need and to graduate on time.

"With the cuts to faculty and departments, it’s going to mean larger classes. It’s going to be less of a class selection and it’s only going make it harder to achieve a four-year degree in that amount of time," he said.

Mark Rosati, a university spokesman, said UIC administrators have begun planning for the next fiscal year in an atmosphere of "great uncertainty."

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com

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