Monday July 11, 2016
NorthernStar
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Volume 116 Issue 65
NIU allocated with new budget plan Madison Kacer News Editor
DeKalb | The appropriations allocated to NIU by Illinois lawmakers will be used to fund numerous university expenses, a major expense being employee salaries.
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$48.3 million in sixmonth budget plan for fiscal year 2017
Because we have significantly less state funding than we have [had] in the past, we will continue to move forward while being very conservative with our expenditures.” Alan Phillips Vice president for administration and finance
NIU was allocated $48.3 million in the six-month budget plan passed by state lawmakers on June 30, said Alan Phillips, NIU vice president for administration and finance. The funds allocated in the budget plan are for fiscal year 2017, but they can still be used to pay for expenses from 2016. This appropriation is in addition to the $26.4 million that was used as a stop-gap allocation in May. NIU was allocated $91 million for fiscal year 2015. “Because we have significantly less state funding than we have [had] in the past, we will continue to move forward while being very conservative with our
expenditures,” Phillips said. Illinois lawmakers passed this budget after a 12-month budget impasse, which resulted from state lawmakers’ lack of agreement with Gov. Bruce Rauner on a budget for fiscal year 2016. Until the budget was passed, state budget appropriations could not be disbursed, including funding for higher education. Other expenses that the university plans to use the funding for include equipment and travel. The budget also allocated $15.5 million for the completion of the Stevens Building renovation, which was
brought to a stop due to the lack of funding during the budget impasse. As a result of decreased state funding, some university initiatives have been cut, Phillips said. Maintenance and upkeep spending has been decreased. Rather than spending the $20 million that is typically spent annually on projects such as renovations, only critical maintenance has been tended to. “When we do make reductions and cut expenses, we’re trying to do it in ways that won’t harm students or take anything away from their ability to continue their education and
$26.4 million used as stop-gap allocation $15.5 million for Stevens Building renovation achieve career success,” Phillips said. The university is also being conservative with re-filling positions, Phillips said. For instance, if an employee leaves the university on his or her behalf for any reason, officials will evaluate whether re-hiring someone for the position is absolutely necessary. This is being done in hopes of reducing spending on salaries. Monetary Award Program
grants that students received for the spring 2016 semester have been fully funded by state allocations. However, funding for MAP grants in future semesters has not been guaranteed. “I’m not concerned about [the state not funding MAP grants in the future] at this time,” Phillips said. “The state has a pretty good track record of funding MAP.”
Program leaders putting action plans together Madison Kacer News Editor
DeKalb | Divisional leaders have utilized a variety of methods while composing program prioritization action plans, which are due on Friday.
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I took all of the [program leaders’] responses into account but I didn’t necessarily limit myself to just stapling together all of the report. There was a lot of synthesis ... .” Christopher McCord Dean of College of Liberal Arts
Program prioritization, which began in 2014, uses task forces to create reports that review 223 academic programs and 236 administrative programs to influence the allocation of university funds. The reports were based on narratives submitted by program leaders in November. Leaders from of each of the 459 programs reviewed by the program prioritization task force have been
responsible for creating an action plan in response to the reports. Program leaders then turned their action plans into the appropriate dean so that the dean could produce a unified plan for the division. When program leaders created their action plans, a template was made available on the program prioritization website to guide the composition process. After being submitted on Friday, the actions plans will then be reviewed by President Doug Doug Baker Baker’s cabi- NIU president net and various shared governance groups. After the review process, Baker will incorporate the suggestions made during the program prioritization process into his budget proposal to the Board of Trustees, according to the program prioritization website.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences began composing actions plans directly after the task force reports were released in May, said Christopher McCord, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Although these action plans eventually took into account the responses submitted by shared governance groups on May 23, they did not wait for their release. Because of the early composition of program action plans, McCord said that faculty members were widely available to be involved in the process. The action plan template was used to guide the composition process. All action plans were submitted to McCord by the end of May. He then began composing a unified plan, for which there was a first draft by mid-June. “I took all of the [program leaders’] responses into account, but I didn’t necessarily limit myself to just stapling together all of the reports,” McCord said. “There was a lot of College of Liberal Arts and synthesis and there was a certain Sciences amount of brokering conversations.” Program leaders within the Because of the early completion
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of action plans, McCord said that he has had the opportunity to compare notes with other divisional leaders about the composition process. All drafts have been shared by McCord with program leaders. “I have been very gratified at the positive response,” McCord said. “People are taking this very seriously. They’re really seeing this as an opportunity to improve the university.” College of Engineering and Engineering Technology While composing action plans, program leaders hosted a series of meetings with faculty members in the program in order to collaborate about the composition, said Omar Ghrayeb, dean of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. The amount of meetings varied from program to program. During these meetings, faculty members would discern whether or not they agreed with the information in the reports. Whether or not agreement was established, an action plan had to be created.
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However, if faculty members disagreed with the reports, they were required to support this with data. Of the 22 academic programs in the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, 59 percent were placed in the categories titled “candidate for transformation” and “candidate for review.” Many of these programs were certificates. However, many faculty members seemed to be on board with these categorizations. “We agree that some of these certificates have been around for a long time,” Ghrayeb said. “We look at it as an opportunity to go back and review those certificates.” Although some program leaders chose to utilize the available action plan template, the use of these templates was not a requirement, Ghrayeb said. Faculty members were a major part of the action plan composition process. “It is important that the faculty members and staff members are solicited for their input, and their input has to be taken seriously. This is our philosophy,” Ghrayeb said.
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