Protesters walked from the school to the Dan Ryan Expressway near 95th Street and briefly blocked all northbound lanes Thursday morning.
Students are calling on lawmakers to pass a budget and keep the school open. Without money from the state, the university may not be able to make payroll. State funding makes up 30 percent of the university's budget.
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The situation is even more dire at Western Illinois University in Macomb, where they are firing 30 faculty members to cut costs while it waits for long-overdue state money.
When asked about the dire situation facing the state's public universities, Gov. Bruce Rauner referred ABC7 to a letter they sent to lawmakers on Jan. 13 encouraging them to ask the state's public universities what reforms they are willing to adopt to cut waste.