The financial guillotine fell on NIU’s academic departments in a last-minute state budget cut on funds set up for “one-year” projects this past summer.

The cuts are perceived as extensive because academics make up 70 percent of the university budget. But, the weight of the cut fell much more heavily outside of academic affairs, NIU President John La Tourette said.

“The only thing we can do besides dropping quality is cut back on the courses that are offered,” La Tourette said.

James Norris, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said a decrease in the operating budget will eventually lead to increasing class sizes, delayed graduations, and eventually faculty leaving due to salary problems.

“If the state does not provide funding, tuition will have to go up or we’ll lose good faculty,” Norris said.

The College of Education was instructed by the provost’s office to make $65,000 in cuts, said Charles Stegman, dean of the college of education.

“General education courses and electives were cut. We did not cut any sections of required courses to my knowledge,” he said.

Stegman said faculty that resigned or retired last year were simply not replaced due to the mandate of the budget cut. Contractional service and faculty travel were also cut in the college, Stegman said.

“We’ve tried to minimize the impact on students by re-assigning faculty to classes,” he said.

La Tourette said cuts were not as bad as they could have been, because funds had been set aside in the spring, anticipating a cut in Springfield.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences operates on a $30 million budget Norris said, and a $170,000 cut can be reckoned with. However, not getting any increase in funds to cope with inflation is devastating.

Norris said that he has already cut $1.01 million out of the 1993 budget for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“The cut works out to 20 faculty members being cut from our college. The current student to teacher ratio in the college is 22:1,” he said.

La Tourette and Norris both conceded that every public university in Illinois is facing a similar dilemma as that problem facing NIU.

“Illinois is not a very good place to work in public education right now,” Norris said.

The only thing we can do besides dropping quality is cut back on the courses that are offered.” John La Tourette, NIU president