The Illinois Board of Higher Education refused to reconsider allowing NIU to build a Hoffman Estates campus Tuesday, despite a letter from an Illinois college group urging them to do so.

IBHE Chairman William Browder initially offered to vote again on the NIU extension only to withdraw the motion after protests from other board members.

Board member J. Robert Barr claimed the move to reconsider the vote was out of order and would set a dangerous precedent. He said he felt that any IBHE decision could be undermined by constant challenges if the decision on the Hoffman Estates campus was not final.

“I have a feeling that if we suspend the rules for this, then they’re going to recommend that we suspend the rules for any close vote,” Barr said.

IBHE legal counsel Bill Fuerer said the move to vote would be contrary to Robert’s Rules of Order, which say that a motion to reconsider can only be made by the day after the decision. He also did not know of any rule that provided for the suspension of Robert’s Rules, he said.

Fuerer said that a move to rescind the previous decision was possible but that it would have to be on the next meeting’s agenda. Even then, the motion would not be legal if NIU had taken some action based on the previous decision, he said.

Board member David Paulus also said he did not favor bringing up the NIU matter again, even though he opposes NIU’s move to Hoffman Estates. “I am concerned that we will be considerng everything time and time again in the future,” he said.

Paulus said he was unable to attend the Dec. 4, 1990, IBHE meeting when the board voted 8-6 to allow for NIU’s expansion.

Tuesday’s discussion was prompted by a letter sent to the IBHE by J. Richard Chase, chairman of the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities. In the letter, which Browder read aloud at the meeting, Chase asked the board to reconsider the motion giving NIU permission for the new campus.

Chase, in the letter, called the NIU move “unprecedented” because no additional tax money was allocated for it. The close vote with two board members absent indicated a “significant division of opinion” on the move, he wrote.

After the meeting, Browder said he was against reconsidering the move but offered it to the board as a courtesy to the FIICU. He said that in his 16 years on the IBHE he could not recall a motion for reconsideration.

Browder said he wanted to give independent colleges the assurance they weren’t being slighted in this matter. “I wanted to lean over backwards, to give that full opportunity, knowing even then that I hoped we would not reverse our position,” he said.

Barr said he thought Browder handled the request properly. “I think he felt he couldn’t just ignore the request from the independent colleges,” he said.

“I know it was his (Browder’s) feeling that if this motion to reconsider had gone to a vote it would have been defeated, and I think that’s probably true. But I just think you shouldn’t even go that far,” Barr said.

“My point of order was designed to support his position,” Barr said.