NIU’s below average budget for Fiscal Year 1991 has left officials looking for ways to provide new and existing programs on last year’s budget.

The only increase Gov. James Thompson allocated to NIU was for faculty salaries, a 2-percent increase: no funds were allocated for new or existing programs.

“We have as many things to do with less money,” said Eddie Williams, vice president for finance and planning. “We’ll manage. This isn’t the first time,” he said.

The budget cut will “be felt throughout the campus,” Williams said. But NIU officials are trying to minimize the impact it will have on faculty and students, he said.

NIU’s purchasing power is reduced by 5 percent, since the budget will not cover the 5-percent increase in the inflation rate, he said.

A $2-million request for research equipment was the largest amount rejected.

A list made last year of needed research equipment to modernize NIU compiled a bill of $10 million, said Jerrold Zar, associate provost for research.

“The story is really that we’re getting no new money,” Zar said. No increase for utilities, telephone, student employment and library materials, he said.

However, many faculty seek financial support outside of NIU for research, Zar said. Each year external support increases, but it does not make up for the $10 million needed to upgrade equipment, he said.

As a result of the skimpy budget, NIU also will lose graduate students to other universities which will reduce the amount research done, he said. Research depends on the undergraduate and graduate students who help the faculty, Zar said.

The experience students get working on outdated equipment will hurt their chances to get better jobs once they are out of school, he said.

Minority recruitment programs also must wait another year for increased funding.

The governor rejected $630,000 for the PRIME/Minority Student Transfer project that would recruit minority students from community colleges into the education department, said Lynn Waldeland, associate provost of Academic Development and Planning.

A request of $639,000 for summer Bridge Programs created to help minority students become aware of the university environment, was turned down as well, Waldeland said.

Another program, with a rejected price tag of $167,000, is PROMPT. This project is intended to start minority students in junior high school thinking about going to college, she said.