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Thursday, May 5, 2016
Northern Star
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Students should give constructive program prioritization feedback
Unionizing bad move for teachers
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Faith Mellenthin | Northern Star
What is your reaction to the program prioritization reports? Program prioritization task force reports, which recommended how resources should be allocated to 459 academic and administrative programs, were released Monday. NIU requested that students and faculty provide feedback from now until May 23. Read more on Page 3.
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I read the article on the NIU faculty’s intent to unionize in the Northern Star on Monday with great dismay. I have worked for other universities that unionized, the faculty thinking they are now in a position of power, with a union to battle for them. The only crystal clear thing about a faculty union is the cost of the union dues. Benefits are more dubious. If the faculty is serious, why join a lame teacher’s union? Why not join the United Automobile Workers or the Teamsters? Seriously, if you want to battle, join a union that knows how. We want assistance with negotiations — why? We want loan forgiveness because we can’t manage our own finances? We want legal and financial assistance? There are organizations that do that now. Joining a lame “gentleman’s” union will require all of us to take a cut in pay and receive little, if anything, in return. Did the faculty mention a pay raise? Not a chance. Why? Because they don’t want to support anything that they can’t deliver on, and focus on things that few care about, but can claim to be a success. Why am I surprised?
See what’s a pass and what’s a fail as judged by Perspective Editor Angela L. Pagan.
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Perspective
Kaylyn Zielinski Columnist
Kara Mercer Columnist
Faith Mellenthin Columnist
All aspects of the program prioritization reports should be open to the public, even if the reports are only recommendations. Also, feedback is highly necessary as some of the recommendations do not seem to properly value some programs. I was surprised to see the categorization was guarded by an NIU login. I understand the narratives explaining why the programs are categorized a certain way are not open to the public, but it demonstrates a lack of transparency when the public cannot see which category a program was placed in. The recommendation that cheerleading be removed from NIU is disheartening because there are many students who participate in it and are dedicated to this sport. If students who enjoy cheering for their university’s teams are no longer able to do so, I cannot see how other students will feel encouraged to do the same from the bleachers. As a journalism major, I am disappointed that it was placed in the “candidate for reduction in resources” category. The narratives are unclear as to how resources will be reduced. I think other students whose programs are in the same category would agree the reports lacked the details that would calm our concerns.
Students should not worry about the program prioritization reports, because of the carefulness with which the task force put the reports together. If students have concerns about something on the reports, they should provide their feedback in order to have their opinion heard. It was necessary to reevaluate all of the programs at NIU because if NIU just continued to add programs while not reviewing the existing ones, the university may not have enough resources. The program prioritization reports revealed only 11 programs requested elimination. Getting rid of some programs and allocating the funds and resources to different programs is a good way for the university to become more efficient. Students currently enrolled in a program that is set to be phased out should not worry because they will be allowed to finish their program and graduate with it. Students who have already worked in a program do not lose any progress they have made academically. Overall, NIU is going about this process in an efficient way that also leaves room for student input. NIU needed to find a way to distribute funds differently to save money, and the program prioritization reports reflect its efforts.
I think the efforts of the program prioritization task force were well-executed because they were easy to understand, but I do not agree with all the recommendations presented. Each report was very long, but there was a table of contents and clear flow that made it user-friendly. That being said, I don’t agree with all of the suggestions because several certificates and minor programs are categorized as “candidates for phase-out.” I feel the classes students must take to obtain certificates and minors are the same classes that are offered to achieve majors. I do not understand why these certificates or minors should be phased out if the classes used to earn them will remain. Unfortunately, the reports fail to provide a explanation to ease my confusion with this issue. A reduction of athletics’ costs seems to be a goal since every revenue-generating sport was recommended to become selfsustained. Even football was set as “continue with reduced resources.” However, I feel that all athletics should have been placed in this category as well. I appreciate the efforts of the program prioritization task force, but I do not agree with its recommendations.
Pass
Video game camp empowers girls The “Just for Girls” video design camp, that will be hosted by the Digital Convergence Lab in June, is a great opportunity for girls to take an interest in technology-based careers. The camp will show girls how to design and play their own video games. This is a creative way to introduce young girls to the fun design aspects of technology. Stereotypically, video games are considered more of a boys’ past time. I applaud the Digital Convergence Lab for helping to break that stereotype by giving young girls the chance to learn these new skills.
Fail
Task force reports taken too seriously The program prioritization reports released Monday are being taken much too seriously. While the topic of program prioritization is serious in that many people have invested hours into crafting these detailed reports, it must be noted that the reports are only recommendations. Nothing in these reports is set in stone. These reports are meant to help the university make decisions and properly allocate resources, but it is by no means a definite plan.