NORMAL—NIU doesn’t really want more of your money, but they will probably have to take it.

The inevitability of a tuition increase became apparent at the Board of Regents meeting Wednesday at Illinois State University in Normal. The board will vote today on a resolution to raise tuition 10 percent, effective next fall. The resolution is non-binding and is expected to pass.

If alternative funding from outside sources isn’t found or the general assembly doesn’t do an about-face with education budgets in times of constraint, NIU’s tuition will go up when the Illinois Board of Higher Education approves the recommended increase in January.

The legislature will make appropriations after the IBHE sets tuition, leaving the unlikely possibility a tuition increase won’t be needed.

That vote will change tuition at NIU from $850 per semester to $940. The figures do not include student fees.

Board members agreed the Regency System, which governs NIU, ISU and Sangamon State University in Springfield, receive the lowest funding of all governing systems.

Board of Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves said the increase is rooted into two weighty problems: The disparity between money given by state legislators and that needed to maintain quality education, and the general price increase for goods and services.

But, “if the general assembly is extrodinarily generous (with funding), I would be prepared to have the tuition increase rolled back,” Groves said.

But funding alternatives still could help avoid a tuition increase, NIU Student Regent Jim Mertes said.

Nobody opposed Mertes’ addition to the resolution to continue to seek alternative funding.