NIU’s separate governing board has gone around the mill so many times it hardly evokes excitement.

Housing that excitement will be the biggest challenge for student leaders to handle. The Student Association should take the lead in mustering support for NIU’s separate governing board.

Hopefully, enough voices will reach Springfield to make it worthwhile for the legislators to listen.

The case has been made time and time again. NIU simply is no longer compatible with Illinois State University in Normal and Sangamon State University in Springfield. The three schools are governed by the Board of Regents.

NIU is outdistancing ISU in terms of educational quality, diversity and enrollment. SSU is so small as almost to be unnoticeable.

This isn’t a thumping of ISU and SSU; both offer an outstanding education at a modest price. But NIU just is too different to be spoken of in the same breath.

Furthermore, NIU has something ISU and SSU doesn’t; the chance and obligation for tremendous growth.

NIU already is reaching toward Rockford and Hoffman Estates for expansion. As part of the school’s scope, to serve the educational needs of northern Illinois, NIU must be prepared to make sure the classes at all three facilities are up to par.

Convincing the legislature it can withstand what it fears—other state universities clamoring for a separate board if NIU is successful—will not be easy. But nobody said being a legislator was easy and the men and women we elect should be up to the task.