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Northern Illinois University

NIU Office of Public Affairs


News Release

Contact: Melanie Magara, Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-1681

February 20, 2004

NIU continues to do more with less
in governor's 2005 higher education budget

DeKalb – Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 2005 budget contains cuts for public universities, but also provides some new dollars for targeted programs and a shifting of student aid funds to the neediest Illinois residents, according to NIU President John Peters.

Peters told faculty and staff in an all-campus email on Friday that the governor’s FY05 across-the-board 2 percent cut in operating funds for all Illinois public universities amounts to just over $2 million less for NIU next year. That amount was mitigated, Peters said, by Blagojevich providing an additional $476,000 for enhanced NIU baccalaureate completion programs in Rockford.

“For three years now, we’ve been doing more with less,” Peters said. “Demand for an NIU education is at an all-time high, and we don’t have the dollars to meet that demand. In the case of the Rockford baccalaureate completion program, the Governor has asked us to do more and has supplied the dollars to do it. We’re grateful for those funds at a time when budgets are so austere throughout the state.”

Peters sent a message to the campus community after the Governor’s budget address.

“Despite this being our third straight year of declining state support, we must continue to endure these reductions,” Peters said. “We must hold tight to the principles that have carried us to this point: protect the academic program, protect jobs and salaries, do not compromise on issues affecting health or safety.”

While specific, department-level details are still several weeks off, the president did say that previous limits on hiring and FY05 plans for travel and equipment purchases would remain in effect.

Peters said he found some good news in the governor’s efforts to shift a sizeable amount of MAP scholarship money toward the state’s neediest students attending public universities such as NIU. The governor’s plan creates a new eligibility formula that relies more on actual student need and less on individual college cost.

Some budget details remain unclear, such as requests for state agencies to hold back “emergency funds,” as well as the status of funding for several major grant-funded programs.

“Once again, I ask the university community to maintain patience and to take a broad view of our circumstances in light of another huge ($1.7 billion) projected state deficit,” Peters said. “If we continue to focus on and protect our core mission, we will come through these difficult times intact.”

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