An NIU program trying to bring in students from Chicago’s city colleges is still in the planning stages.

The city colleges recently came under scorn from the University of Chicago for being inadequate. However, NIU hasn’t slowed its efforts.

“The university is trying to develop a cooperative program with the city colleges,” said Lynne Waldeland, assistant provost of Academic Development and Planning.

Transfer students from city colleges to NIU have more than doubled from the 1989 fall semester with 44 transfers to 90 for the 1990 fall semester.

This increase could be, in part, a result of NIU’s recent efforts with its new program.

The College of Education is working with Kennedy King and Malcolm X schools trying to put together a transfer program for teacher education.

“We would work with those students with their basic reading, mathematics and writing skills and also with a computer course. They would be acclimated to our campus,” said Alfonzo Thurman, associate dean of the College of Education.

In a recent study by the University of Chicago, researcher Maria Langan suggests that the eight city colleges in Chicago are failing to do their jobs and are acting as schools to educate those who didn’t finish high school.

Langan’s research shows city colleges offer low-cost ways for students to get their college educations. The problem, as Langan sees it, is that almost half of the students are enrolled in English as a second language class.

Thurman, however, does not feel that the city colleges are failing.

He said the increase in transfer students could be because of “more of an effort across the university to recruit students from the city colleges.”