Actions Taken For Lincoln College Students

Photo courtesy of  Lincoln College Facebook

NORMAL, Ill.–Lincoln College has communicated to the Illinois Department of Higher Education and Higher Learning Commission of permanent closure.

The closure is in effect May 13th and the Board of Trustees have voted to terminate all academic programming this spring semester.  In hopes to help students who are affected by the closure, State Representative Tim Butler has filed a House Joint Resolution (HJR) to assist students.

Butler’s joint HJR bill persists every public and private university and community college in this State to extend their application deadlines for students currently enrolled at Lincoln College who are unable to continue their education at their institution due to circumstances beyond their control.

“So Senator Sally Turner and I have introduced joint resolutions that would urge the other schools in the State of Illinois to accept transfers from Lincoln College, to waive fees, waive transfer fees, waive deadlines, waive residency requirements and match any financial assistance,” said Butler.

It also asks every public and private university and community college in this State to honor the credits earned by students from Lincoln College and have those credits be transferred accordingly.

The measure pushes Illinois public and private universities and community colleges to attend Lincoln College’s student transfer fair on April 14 to assist its students in finding another college to attend.

“We are trying to do all we can to soften the blow and make sure that especially students have some place they’ll be able to school go next fall and make it easy for them as possibly,” said Butler.

Annette Roter talks about the “Save Lincoln College” Facebook

The resolution also encourages the Illinois Department of Employment Security and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to work with the displaced Lincoln College employees to ease their financial hardships and support their attempts to find new employment.

Students have not stopped the fight to keep their college alive–there is an Facebook page called “Save Lincoln College.” The page shares testimonials about students and employees who want to keep the college open. Monday morning representatives of the account mentioned that they want donors to help raise $50 million dollars to keep the college open. Associate Professor of Leadership and Organizational Studies at Lincoln College Annette Roter is active with the group. Roter talks about money plans and sporadically gives updates.

“We have a little bit of a shift today that I wanted to share with this group. At a Q & A this morning President Gerlach said he would talk to any donors or investors pledging a Million dollars or more. This is a shift as before we were looking at one or two massive donors,” said Roter.

Faculty, students and staff continue to push for the return of Lincoln College.