The governor is currently holding funding for state universities as leverage to get the legislature to accept his legislative agenda. An agenda which they would, otherwise, not accept. The good news is that UIUC is the state’s flagship university. It has a very large endowment that it can use to weather any mischief from political games. Other institutions without a strong alumni base and endowment are in trouble and cutting back. While UIUC is taking a hit, any cuts will be administrative in nature, preserving faculty and the classroom.
On the other hand, the politics in this state is now toxic. Never before in Illinois history has the state not funded higher education. Never missed that funding even through the Civil war, or the Great Depression. But with the strategy being employed on both the state and federal level of threatening government shutdowns, lack of signed budgets, etc to achieve political objectives rather than good old-fashioned negotiation in good faith where both parties get a little, and give a little, the Universities find themselves as one of the current hostages in this standoff.
After all is said and done, however, the state only accounts for 17% of U of I’s operating budget, and there is little chance of the current political debacle affecting its educational mission or national standing.