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Despite the uncertainty in Springfield, Elizabeth Winkler will keep her graduate assistantship for the time being.
Winkler, a graduate student from North Pole, Alaska, studying social work, does clerical work and observes social workers at the Integrated Assessment Program, a program that screens children when the Department of Child and Family Services takes them into custody.
The program is one of many social service outlets on the brink of closure if the state does not find a way to balance its operations budget.
If the program goes, so will Winkler’s job.
Today was supposed to be the first day of the fiscal year 2010 budget, but lawmakers are still trying to find a way to keep social service programs alive without raising the state income tax by 50 percent.
“People are hopeful that it’s going to turn around,” Winkler said of the mood in her office. “(They are) hopeful that we’ll not have such a severe cut as projected.”
Mizanur Miah, the program’s principal investigator, said the program relies on grants from DCFS valuing $5.6 million to operate in 84 central and southern Illinois counties and employ at least eight graduate assistants, four interns and 53 full-time staff.
Cutting social service programs, which provide training services for university students, could create an enrollment problem, said Anthony Cuvo, director of the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Cuvo said some of the graduate assistants who work at the center, which is also dependent on state funds, decided to study in Carbondale because programs at other schools did not have a hands-on training center.
“If we don’t have that as a recruiting tool ... then those students will find us less attractive,” he said.
The autism center has trained more than 145 students in nine years, according to a report published earlier this year.
Kenneth Teitelbaum, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, said he is concerned about losing these programs because of the training they provide to students.
Should the cuts go through, Teitelbaum said graduate assistants might be able to find a job with one of the other departments in the Rehabilitation Institute, but it is doubtful they would be working alongside professionals in their specific field of study.
Though her job security is hazy, Winkler said she is more concerned about the negative impacts on the region if her employer were cut from the state budget.
“I’ll be in a better position (to find another job) as I’m going through school,” she said. “It’s going to have a greater impact on the community.”
Daily Egyptian reporter Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 263 or barton.lorimor@siude.com.
