Minutes of the
NIU Board of Trustees
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS,
STUDENT AFFAIRS AND
PERSONNEL COMMITTEE
November 11, 1999

Committee Chair Robert Boey asked Mr. Nolan Davis to come forward to be sworn in as student trustee of the Board of Trustees of Northern Illinois University. Mr. Davis repeated the oath as follows:

I, Nolan Davis, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois and the laws thereof and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of [Student] Trustee for the Board of Trustees of Northern Illinois University to the best of my ability.

I thank the Board for swearing me in and the Student Association President and Senate for nominating and confirming me to this position. It is a wonderful opportunity to serve and to accomplish something on behalf of the student body and on behalf of the university community. It is sort of a strange situation. I am the last student trustee of this millennium, but I am also the first student trustee of the next millennium. I think that is a very exciting opportunity for me, personally. And this, of course, is an exciting year for the university with so many fundamentally important decisions to make on its leadership and its role in the future. Thank you.

Chair Boey welcomed Mr. Davis to the Board and as a member of the Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Personnel Committee.

Chair Boey recognized University Advisory Committee Representative Dan Gebo. He then recognized Trustee Vella, who wished to make some comments.

I am pleased to announce, Trustee Vella said, that the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology has just received reaccreditation for its undergraduate engineering programs from its professional organization for the longest possible term, six years. This college has an excellent history in its accreditation efforts. It was created in 1985 and sought its first accreditation right after its first class graduated. Its first site visit was in 1989, and initial accreditation was granted in 1990 for three years, the longest term available for new programs. The programs were reaccredited in 1993 and again in 1996. The site team that visited made many positive comments about the progress of the engineering programs in their relatively short history and also about the state-of-the-art facility in which the programs are housed. Trustee Vella, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, recognized Dean Rom Kasuba for his leadership in achieving the college’s success and accreditation, and the faculty, staff and students of the college.

President La Tourette announced that Dean Kasuba was representing him at an international meeting and conference in Chicago. The dean was meeting with presidents from Danish universities and the director of the Danish International Studies Program in Copenhagen with which NIU has worked for many years. It is an important meeting since the university has worked cooperatively with several universities in Scandinavia and Lithuania. So, I asked Dean Kasuba to represent me in that arena, the President said, but I will relay to him the Board’s good wishes and congratulations.

Chair Boey announced that one very important action item, a new Research and Public Service Center, was included on the day's agenda. This new center will formalize what NIU has been doing on campus for the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The proposed center is designed to train foster parents on services or educational opportunities available for the children under the custody of DCFS and also to train DCFS employees to deal with problems that foster parents face in dealing with schooling foster children. He then turned the meeting over to Board Liaison Lynne Waldeland.

Dr. Cassidy said this request for a Center for Child Welfare and Education was brought to the Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Personnel Committee after receiving the approval of the Department of Teacher Education, the College of Education and the Academic Planning Council, and the concurrence of the Provost. The proposed center is designed to support training and community service activities, collaborative research, educational experiences and consultation services for policy development within the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Specifically, the proposed center will provide training to students, teachers and social welfare professionals on the unique needs of abused and neglected children in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. It will also offer consultation services and workshops to professionals in schools, in DCFS and the community on the problems these children encounter in educational settings. It will assist in developing and implementing new policies to help mitigate the negative impact of some current practices on the educational outcomes of these children. In addition, the personnel in the proposed center will conduct research on the challenges that these children face in becoming educated and on the factors that affect their educational progress and outcomes.

Dr. Sharon Freagon, Professor in the Department of Teacher Education in the College of Education, will serve as the director of the proposed center. Dr. Freagon has a long history of external funding in the area of child welfare; and she is currently the director of three state grants, all of which focus on improving the educational experiences of children with special needs. In addition, she is the author of journal articles and book chapters on inclusion services for children with disabilities and has served on state and national committees concerned with the welfare of children, including the DCFS Educational Task Force. Dr. Freagon has assembled an expert team of professional personnel to assist in the training, consultation, and research and policy development activities for this proposed center. Ms. Cassidy recognized Dr. Freagon and introduced her to the Board.

The creation of the Center for Child Welfare and Education is important to the university for several reasons, Dr. Cassidy continued. The work of this proposed center will advance the mission of Northern Illinois University by meeting the developmental educational needs of disadvantaged children within our society, by serving as a resource for the creation, transmission and application of new knowledge about interventions that foster positive educational outcomes for children with special needs, and meeting regional needs for preparing teachers and professionals who are committed to working with children whose life circumstances can impede the attainment of the educational goals desired for all children. In addition, the proposed center will assist NIU in documenting its contributions to the fulfillment of the Illinois Board of Higher Education goals for the state as articulated in the Illinois Commitment.

When a university faculty has a focused area of expertise in which there is a clear public need, the university sometimes creates a center or an institute in order to foster that expertise. In addition, the director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services strongly supports its creation. The proposed center will be funded by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for more than $13 million over five years. The College of Education will provide office and laboratory space, computer hardware and software, and support for one full-time equivalent graduate assistant for the duration of five years. No new state resources are requested for the creation or the operation of this center. Finally, the university recommends that the Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Personnel Committee endorse this request and ask that the President forward it by means of the President’s Report to the Board of Trustees for approval at its December 10, 1999 meeting.

In reply to a question from Trustee Vella, Dr. Freagon said that this is the only center on child welfare and education in the country. DCFS has a center at the University of Illinois on outcomes of the child welfare system and another center on adoption at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal. NIU's would be the third center in the state.

I think it is great, Trustee Vella said. We have gone a long way in identifying children who are abused and neglected, but we still do not know how to address their needs. They are having problems in school, she said, and we really need to find new ways to deal with children who have been traumatized at young ages. This kind of program should really grow once it takes off because it really responds to a need, Chair Boey said, and there is a definite need for it.

I really appreciate the leadership that Dr. Freagon has shown in this area, President La Tourette said. Jess McDonald, the Director of DCFS, came to us and proposed that we create a center for this purpose. I was very impressed with his leadership. Director McDonald was one of the few people from the Edgar administration reappointed by Governor Ryan. Mr. McDonald is a very inspiring person who seems to understand the plight of young people and how important it is to make sure that, in spite of all the difficulties they face, they have an opportunity to receive a good education. This center represents an excellent partnership between Mr. McDonald and Dr. Freagon and between two agencies — the Department of Children and Family Services and the university.

Chair Boey asked for a motion to approve the new Research and Public Service Center. Student Trustee Davis made the motion, seconded by Trustee Vella. The motion was approved.

Agenda Item 6.b. – Update on Changes to SURS Early Retirement Option
Dr. Waldeland said that on August 26, 1999, the Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee and the Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Personnel Committee met in a joint session to be informed about a new development in the State University Retirement System’s Early Retirement Option. She then asked Steve Cunningham, Associate Vice President for Administration and Human Resources, to bring the Board up to date on what has happened since then.

When we met in joint session, Mr. Cunningham said, the university provided a broad description of the SURS Early Retirement Without Discount Program, otherwise known as the ERO Program, and a legal case, called the Mattis case, which has affected the operations of that program. The Board discussed and approved participation policies regarding the ERO program on September 9.

Mr. Cunningham briefly covered the points of the program and then gave an update on NIU's participation in the program as well as the court and the legislative approaches toward the ERO situation. As pension issues go, this is probably one of the more complex issues we will encounter, Mr. Cunningham said, and many staff people have been working on it, including Ken Davidson on the legal implications, Kate Romano on counseling and employee communications, and Joanne Bergren and Dennis Davito on counseling. Concurrent with the Board’s approval of our participation policy, he said, we also have met with the Faculty Senate, the councils in each college and other groups throughout the campus, and conducted retirement planning forums.

The Mattis case involved an individual named Brian Mattis from SIU, who selected the Early Retirement Option. He claimed that there is nothing in the pension code that requires these contributions to be treated any differently than normal contributions. In other words, they should be included in the Money Purchase calculation and not just serve to reduce the penalty in the General Formula calculation. At the appellate court level, Mr. Mattis prevailed, and in October 1998 the Supreme Court declined to accept the SURS appeal of the matter, so it became a matter of law in the policies under the SURS. Depending on the calculation methodology, Mr. Cunningham said, the implications for NIU are that those contributions can result in substantially increased retirement benefits for employees.

The university took steps in September to structure employee participation. One of these steps was the implementation of a 15 percent limit on annual ERO participation. A process of communication and counseling was begun with about 374 employees who would be eligible for ERO benefits. To date, approximately a third of that group has been counseled, Mr. Cunningham said, and most have elected to waive the ERO. We have found the counseling process to be very beneficial in a number of ways. Because the amount of benefit can vary so greatly depending upon a wide variety of factors, it gives each employee an idea of just what this could mean in their situation. It also has given us an organized and ordered way of allocating our counseling time, he said. We started with the most senior employees and worked down through the list to the least senior. That process should be completed either by the end of the year or early next year. One significant policy implication is that if the entire 15% participated in the ERO, it would cost about three million dollars in employer contributions and another two million in sick leave and vacation payouts. That is five percent, basically, of the personnel services budget. In addition to the potentially significant budgetary implications, it would also cause staffing issues throughout the university should there be large numbers of people participating. But so far, Mr. Cunningham said, based upon the calculation methodologies that have been considered by the courts to date, and through our counseling, we have not seen large increases in participation at Northern. As we work through the list, however, we begin to have less senior people involved whose Money Purchase accounts are somewhat smaller. When a large sum of money is put into that account, it will have a proportionately greater effect. We will continue this process and keep you updated on participation rates.

Brian Mattis has moved for an expedited hearing in the trial court. The appellate court deferred certain specific matters to the trial court, the most significant of which was the actual calculation method. Depending upon how this new Money Purchase benefit is calculated, the enhancement for employees participating in the ERO can range anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent or all the way up to 60 percent. That would have a great effect on what the eventual level of participation would be at the university. The court was to convene again concerning this matter on December 3, 1999. Meanwhile, the question of actual calculation methodology is still an open question, Mr. Cunningham said, potentially giving the state legislature time to actually pass a law that would clarify this issue before the court decision is completed. If that happened, employees would have a constitutional guarantee of benefits. The legislature would not be able to take action prior to the expiration of the current ERO in September 2002. Sponsored by John Maitland, who is also chair of the Pension Laws Commission, Senate Bill 1263 is a bill that would clarify the calculation method at an approximate 10 percent enhancement, on average, for ERO participants. It passed Pension Laws on Thursday, November 4, unanimously. There is a House Bill equivalent, House Bill 2918, that will be carefully watched. It is difficult to get legislation passed in the veto session. We feel that this approach would be the best approach. But should the legislature not act on it in the veto session, we will await the court decision. Meanwhile, we have implemented our internal policies, Mr. Cunningham said, and are somewhat better organized in that respect than most of the other universities. Mr. Cunningham clarified that 30 percent of the eligible employees that had been interviewed was well beyond the first 15 percent. He said it was possible that they would run through the entire list and not reach the 15 percent limit of those deciding to retire.

President La Tourette extended his appreciation both to Mr. Cunningham and his staff. This is a very complex issue, he said, and they have taken a leadership role in the state, particularly to bring to the attention of the other presidents and universities the complexity of this issue. We know that the counseling the staff has done has been very beneficial to faculty and staff in helping them in their long-term retirement planning. From my experience in the state, I can say there is no other university that has performed this task as well as we have at Northern Illinois University. That is a great tribute to Mr. Cunningham's department. In many cases, President La Tourette said, the findings are that a person sees that if he or she stays one or two more years, there is as much or maybe more benefit than taking retirement at the present time. A decision to retire is more complicated than just the size of the pension.

Agenda Item 6.c. – The Illinois Commitment and 1999 Results Report
Dr. Waldeland explained that the Illinois Commitment is a major new planning initiative on the part of the IBHE and a new accountability mechanism for Illinois higher education. The Board of Higher Education is given, by statute, the responsibility for master planning for Illinois higher education. That master plan began in 1966, with the master plans being revised periodically. When Keith Sanders became the new executive director of the IBHE, he felt it was time to revisit the issue of the Master Plan. He has taken a new approach with an effort that was initially called the Citizens Agenda. His goal was to arrive at the Master Plan only after consultation with major constituencies in Illinois. There were surveys and focus groups of citizens, politicians, opinion leaders and graduating seniors from Illinois higher public education, Dr. Waldeland said. Finally the IBHE arrived at the statement, including the goals stated on page 11 of the Board materials. The Citizens' Agenda was retitled "The Illinois Commitment: Partnerships, Opportunities and Excellence." It appears to some on campus that these goals may not fully take account of the research mission of institutions, Dr. Waldeland said, but it is not difficult to demonstrate the role of research in helping accomplish goal one, helping Illinois business and industry sustain strong economic growth. And given the relationship between research and instruction, she said, it has a central role in accomplishing goal five, which addresses quality in educational experiences and academic programs.

The Illinois Commitment requires that higher education institutions file an annual report called a Results Report. This report allows the universities to convey annually what they have done to contribute to the Illinois Commitment goals and how the they intend to address these goals in the future. The reports were due on August 15. We normally try to bring a major report of this kind to the appropriate Board committee before it is sent to the IBHE, Dr. Waldeland continued, but given the timing this year, the report was mailed to the Board at the same time it was submitted to the IBHE. This is the first report.

One of the things that we appreciate about this new approach to master planning and accountability, Dr. Waldeland said, is that the IBHE does not expect all twelve public institutions to accomplish these goals in the same way. This year’s report was a pilot, and we were allowed to devise our own format. The IBHE may do some fine-tuning on what they would like to have in the reports. This year we were asked for statements of what had been done in the past year that contributed to the six goals, Dr. Waldeland continued, and what our future plans were. Highlighted accomplishments from last year’s report and major plans were included in the Board Report.

This is an important new accountability mandate, Dr. Waldeland said, and I want the Board to know that it exists and to understand how we plan to approach it. Our goal on campus with any external mandate is to have it result in an internal benefit so that we do not just hand in a report because someone asked for it. To introduce the Results Report on campus this year, we first asked departments, colleges, student service units and administrative offices to look at the Illinois Commitment and give us information about how they had contributed to it last year. We received an enormous amount of information. It was a rather gratifying response, Dr. Waldeland continued, and quite a challenge for Dr. Cassidy and me to go through and try to choose the most telling examples. After everyone had reached a comfort level with reporting on these issues, we went back and asked what kinds of plans they had for next year that will contribute to these six goals. We urged people to be cautious and give us only practical plans. The IBHE expects that for every plan we include, we will be able to say how we will measure our progress. We wanted to include only things that people were actually planning that could be accomplished within our existing resources and capabilities. We also asked them to tell us how they would measure their success.

We have a way to go, in some cases, in figuring out the more subtle and qualitative measurements of our progress. The next step is to review this set of activities and assessment measures and ask for progress reports and new plans to include in next year's report. This is going to be a constantly monitored, constantly evolving process. There is the possibility that the IBHE will make some changes as reports come in from the various campuses, and we are prepared for that. If the IBHE has a formal response to the 1999 reports, it will be provided at the December IBHE meeting, and we will update the Board on it at that time.

Agenda Item 6.d. – National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Athletics Certification
Dr. Waldeland stated that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Athletics Certification is also an accountability mechanism. Northern Illinois University has already received its first certification. She then asked Cary Groth, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, to give the Board further information on the NCAA certification.

Ms. Groth noted that the certification process has been discussed with the Faculty Senate and the University Council, and she was pleased to provide a summary of the NCAA Division I athletic certification to the Board. Northern Illinois University has Division I-A status in the NCAA. At the 1993 NCAA convention, it was agreed that all Division I institutions would engage in a certification process intended to ensure the integrity of all aspects of that athletic program. It includes four different components. NIU went through its first certification in 1994; and, in the spring of 1995, the university was fully certified by the NCAA. The certification process is to take place every five years; however, it was decided at the 1997 NCAA convention that Division I institutions would now be certified once every ten years. Ms. Groth stated that since NIU was one of the first eight institutions to be certified in 1994-95, five years ago, we are now due for recertification. After this, the university will move into the ten-year cycle. The certification peer-review team will be here in June 2000. The NCAA certification process pretty much mirrors the North Central Accreditation (NCA) process. It is very healthy for our athletic program, she said, and the recommendations we received during the first certification have been put into place in our athletic program. We are hopeful that through this certification process we can again get some good recommendations from the peer-review team. Ms. Groth then asked Dr. Judy Bischoff, the faculty chair of the self-study process, to brief the Board on the four different components of the accreditation process.

Dr. Bischoff stated that President La Tourette asked her to chair the steering committee for this NCAA recertification in March 1999, and that she had also chaired one of the subcommittees in 1994 during the previous certification. The steering committee consists of faculty, staff, students, alumni, boosters and administrators, giving the steering committee wide representation. From that steering committee, chairs were chosen to head four subcommittees: Ray Dembinski, Governance and Commitment to Rules Compliance; Greg Long, Academic Integrity; Kathe Shinham, Physical Integrity; and Jan Rintala, Equity, Welfare and Sportsmanship. At this point, we are in the process of preparing a first draft of the report. This past summer, Dr. Bischoff said, Anne Kaplan and I met with Bob Boey to give the Board of Trustees an executive summary of where we were. The first draft of this report will be sent to the university community on Monday, November 15. Open hearings will be held to give people an opportunity to supply input for the document. The report is a draft, she said, and it will be revised as we go along. Also, all information, including the agenda, the minutes and the draft will be on our NCAA Recertification web site. The intent of this is to open the process so there are opportunities for comments and questions and people are well aware of what is happening in Intercollegiate Athletics. The review committee has been named, and the visit is planned for June 19. We look for it to be a very good and fruitful process, Dr. Bischoff said.

President La Tourette said that he was familiar with this process, having experienced it here at NIU as well as chairing two of these site visit teams to other universities. The chair of our review committee will be a fellow president, Hoke Smith, from Towson University in Maryland. He has had a long and very distinguished career in higher education and will be a good and knowledgeable chair. In addition to the chair, the team will include an athletic director, an associate athletic director, a compliance officer and a faculty representative. The President said that this is similar to the academic accreditation for the university. I have found that these are useful processes for universities, Dr. La Tourette said, and they are very helpful to Intercollegiate Athletics as well.

In answer to a question from Trustee Vella, Ms. Groth said that athletic certification is mandatory for participation in sports with the other NCAA approved institutions. President La Tourette explained that there are about 300 universities and colleges in Division I. Division I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletic competition. That is further divided into Division I-A, which consists of 114 institutions. NIU is in that top tier, which is distinguished by having football. Next is Division I-AA, the next level in football. And then, if an institution is just Division I, it means that they are playing a range of sports that does not include football. Along with Division II and Division III, the NCAA has over 2,000 affiliated schools.

Student Trustee Davis asked Ms. Groth what some of the resulting comments from the last review were and how they were dealt with. One example she gave was that the department should educate its boosters better about rules compliance. Across the country, she said, you hear of boosters offering money or service benefits to student athletes that are improper, so there were some suggestions on how we could better educate our boosters. The department has started putting a column in its quarterly boosters' newsletter and talking to the Huskie Club board of directors, Ms. Groth said. We just assume people know the rules, when they really do not. Drug or substance abuse education was also addressed in this certification. Education opportunities have been increased for student athletes in substance abuse, gambling and other related areas. Also, a major shift was made in academic advisement. More stability was needed in that area, and we have supplied that. Some very good recommendations came out of that study, and we are anxious to see the recommendations that come out of this visit. Ms. Groth said she would be happy to share the self-study report done for the initial certification with the Board members, as well as the final results of the current recertification and the plans to address any recommendations.

President La Tourette commented that the self-study work was bringing up some very interesting issues. One was in regard to a tremendous change in the diversity of NIU's future student body. It is very helpful for us to look forward and see how we can increase the participation of students as the student body becomes much more diverse. That also raises some issues about the participation of groups such as Asian Americans and Hispanics in intercollegiate athletics. By our current measures, we are well represented by African Americans in our intercollegiate athletics program, the President said, but these other two populations are going to grow rather rapidly in our student body. Right now, there is not much participation of Asian Americans in many of the sports we offer. The question is, are these students getting experiences now in elementary and high school so that when they arrive at the university, they will be participating in intercollegiate athletics? This is an issue that NIU can really take a leadership role in because we will have these students coming to the university, he said, and it would be wonderful if we could have more of this diverse student body participating in intercollegiate athletics at the same time. It opens up new opportunities for these new populations.
 

The Chair then asked for a motion to adjourn. Trustee Vella so moved, seconded by Student Trustee Davis. The motion was approved. The meeting was adjourned at 2:40 p.m.
 
Respectfully submitted,

Sharon M. Mimms
Recording Secretary