The Board of Regents can make split-second decisions to remove asbestos from the University Health Services or to place a copper top on the Holmes Student Center.

Nine officials appointed by the governor and three non-voting students make up the board, which passes requests on such things as tuition, campus remodeling and off-campus funding.

The board governs NIU, Illinois State University in Normal and Sangamon State University in Springfield.

It is a “statutory governmental board that was set up by the state legislature to govern the three universities,” said J. Carroll Moody, executive secretary of the University Council, which reports to the board.

Moody also is a member of the Joint University Advisory Committee, a group that consists of about five officials from each university and reports its concerns to the board.

“The board operates with members appointed by the governor,” he said. “It makes policies for the whole system.”

Different issues that arise at the monthly meetings are directed to four committees within the board. These committees are Academic and Student Affairs, Finance and Facilities, Personnel and Operations and Audit.

With help from the board, for example, NIU faculty were awarded more than $13.5 million in outside grants, fellowships and contracts during Fiscal Year 1989, according to the board’s 1989 annual report.

Chancellor Roderick Groves is the head of the board and has a staff that makes preparations for meetings and carries out administrative, financial and coordinating duties for the system, as stated in a Regency System pamphlet.

Groves also serves on the Illinois Board of Higher Education, which hears requests from the board.

NIU President John La Tourette, along with the presidents of SSU and ISU, and NIU Student Regent Jim Mertes, with SSU and ISU student regents, attend the board’s meetings to bring up issues from the universities.

The board has been around for 23 years when it governed NIU and ISU. SSU joined the system in 1969.

NIU’s Faculty Assembly and University Council report to the board to seek approval for issues discussed at their meetings.