DeKALB — NIU reiterated university goals and addressed financial challenges in the midst of federal funding shortfalls at Faculty Senate on Wednesday.
President Lisa Freeman explained NIU’s goals, which she said reflect its principles which can’t be compromised on.
“That includes access, equity and inclusion. It includes academic freedom, academic excellence and institutional independence, things which we know have been under fire and in the news,” she said.
Freeman also noted the “federal disinvestment” as a financial challenge which required NIU to be proactive.
“I think it is also important that the goals acknowledge our current challenges,” she said. “During COVID, we were not shy about mentioning the pandemic and the goals, and I think here, we really need to be forthright in acknowledging that there is a crisis in public confidence in higher education, that we’re living in a time of great polarization and political interference and that federal and state disinvestment in higher education — and really federal disinvestment in our state — have led to financial challenges that have a cascading effect that require us to be on top of them.”
Freeman affirmed faculty’s right to academic freedom and the full support from the university, upon which she received applause.
“I can tell you for sure, we entirely uphold your academic freedom,” she said. “We have a statement to that effect and I can tell you right here that if one of our faculty were challenged in the classroom for doing their job and teaching an idea that was unpopular or in an inappropriate way, we would back you 100%.”
BUDGET UPDATE
Executive Vice President and Provost Laurie Elish-Piper and Chief Financial Officer George Middlemist outlined the strategy for NIU’s budgeting process for Fiscal Year (FY) 26, punctuated by Governor JB Pritzker’s executive order which directs state funded agencies in Illinois to hold 4% of their funding in reserve as a response to the Trump administration’s economic policies.
“Well obviously our university is not a state agency, but that really is a signal that the state is concerned about the budget situation and some of the things coming from the federal government that will negatively impact Illinois’ budget,” Elish-Piper said.
Earlier this spring, the governor’s office proposed a 3% increase, or $46 million, to public universities as part of the higher education budget for FY 26.
The budget plan was revised over the summer to a 1% increase instead, with 2% being added at the discretion of the governor. Elish-Piper said it was unclear to NIU how the process would play out at first, but suspected the 2% discretionary increase was now unlikely.
“As time passed, we found out that we were going to get a 1% increase with 2% with the discretion of the governor,” she said. “Well, now we’re hearing that the 2% is highly unlikely to come, that we really should not be expecting that,” Elish-Piper said.
Middlemist explained the dollar value of the lost 2%.
“A 2% reduction is about $2 million, so we’re expecting to see $2 million less from the state in terms of our total budget,” Middlemist said.
NIU’s total budget for FY26 is $444.8 million.
According to the presentation, the timeline for the FY27 budget development included the various NIU divisions clarifying their core functions and undergoing budget training sessions. By February and through March, the divisions will submit and revise their budget proposals if necessary. By June 4, NIU will submit their FY27 budget to the Board of Trustees for consideration.
The next Faculty Senate meeting will take place at 3 p.m. on Nov. 19 in the Altgeld Hall auditorium.
