It’s been too long of a haul toward getting an NIU extension in Rockford for NIU to consider changing the rules in the middle of the game.

Some Rockford legislators, who would love to see NIU offer 300 and 400 level classes to please their constituency, have begun bouncing those very thoughts off NIU. So far, NIU’s been listening and hasn’t ruled out the idea of offering a few undergrad courses.

These thoughts need to stop. For the time being, the whole Rockford center matter is so riddled with confusion and questions that any talk of straying from the plan isn’t wise.

Since talk of an NIU graduate studies center surfaced a couple of years ago, the issue of “non-duplication” of classes has been foremost. NIU President John La Tourette met extensively with the administration of Rockford College and Rock Valley College to assure them NIU would offer solelypost-baccalaureate post-baccalaureate courses.

To go back on that word would severely wound NIU’s credibility in the eyes of the other colleges. Longtime RVC President Karl Jacobs was wary of the wording “graduate studies center” from day one and probably will be even more leery of this proposal.

Furthermore, even entertaining the idea will be more trouble than it’s worth in the long run.

Ann Kaplan, executive assistant to La Tourette, is wearing blinders when she says she believes there aren’t enough students in Rockford looking for higher undergraduate classes.

The Rockford legislators who’ve proposed this know their constituents and know the number of students who leave RVC and want to finish their degrees in a public university are staggering. An NIU undergraduate presence in Rockford would be a well-used resource—and a hard animal to stop if it began.

As of now, NIU’s plans for grad courses remain on track. To leave the path is a mistake.