Southern Illinois University (SIU) recently announced that the state Monetary Awards Program (MAP), providing grants based on financial need, will be made available to students at its Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses for the fall 2016 semester.
SIU System President Randy Dunn clarified that the financial aid, provided by the state of Illinois to undergraduates statewide, will be dispensed despite the current stalemate in Springfield over a full state budget, based on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s and the General Assembly’s recent decision to allocate $8.4 million to the SIU system this fall in MAP funding.
“Funding of MAP grants is a covenant relationship between the state of Illinois and eligible students,” Dunn said. “Our university has a legacy of access, and we do not want to see eligible students denied the opportunity to pursue their academic and career goals.”
The authorization ensures MAP’s continuity for undergraduates. Due to the state’s financial stress, SIU itself covered the grant costs for the 2015-16 academic year, paying out $11.5 million to SIU-Carbondale students and $6.5 million to students at the Edwardsville campus.
“We appreciate the bipartisan effort that we saw in Springfield,” Dunn said. “However, that agreement was for a temporary budget, and no additional money has been provided yet for MAP grants for the upcoming year. We owe our students certainty that their education will not be disrupted this fall.”
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