U of I plans to close police institute
URBANA — University of Illinois administrators have decided the Police Training Institute will close June 30 in spite of a push by Urbana’s mayor to keep it open.
The closure still requires a vote by university trustees, expected at their May 31 meeting.
Urbana-Champaign campus Chancellor Phyllis Wise said Thursday that she’s sympathetic to those who would like to keep the institute open, The News-Gazette in Champaign reported.
The state partially pays for the institute, but the university has to spend more than $600,000 a year on something that isn’t part of the school’s academic mission or geared toward students.
“I know there are many members of our community who are supportive of this,” Wise said, noting the feedback she and Easter have heard since she announced the program’s intended closure last month. “But we’re not going to use tuition dollars to do that.”
The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board is working with Western Illinois University in Macomb to start police training courses.
Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing believes the institute’s closure will cost her city and others money as they send police elsewhere for training. She believes the closure is based on “money and petty politics.”
The Urbana City Council passed a nonbinding resolution pressing the state to keep the institute open.