The long-awaited $500,000 for the NIU graduate campus in Rockford might be lost despite NIU’s victory in a year-long legislative battle.

The money has been passed around between Gov. James Thompson and the Illinois Senate and House since May of 1989. In the past year, the bill for the $500,000 was passed, vetoed and the veto was overridden.

The governor agreed with congress in May of this year, but Thompson asked the Illinois Board of Higher Education to review the plans for the NIU campus in Rockford.

The Rockford campus would offer junior, senior and master’s level classes for about 1,500 students in the Rockford, Belvidere and Freeport areas.

Unless the $500,000 is released and spent by June 30, the plans for the Rockford campus could be delayed another year.

“I don’t have a clue when the governor will release the money,” said Sen. Joyce Holmberg, D-Rockford, who supported the bill to get NIU the $500,000.

Holmberg said she recently met with Thompson to ask when the money would be released, and he said “the money will be released in a timely fashion.”

“I think it’s partly a funding problem,” said NIU President John La Tourette. Although there is a “clear commitment” by the legislature to fund the project, the large amount of authorized state construction projects in the 1989 spring legislative session is causing a delay, he said.

“We are responsible to make sure programs approved are needed in the state,” said Frank Llano, assistant to the governor in education. “We are stewards of the state,” he said.

Llano said after the IBHE studies the answers to a questionnaire, the governor could release the money, but there are “a lot of priorities” at the governor’s office. The questions “should have been answered to begin with,” he said.

But La Tourette said the university contacted the IBHE on Jan. 10 for any questions the board might have on the Rockford campus plans. He said only after the governor asked the board to review the campus plans on May 18 did the board come up with the questionnaire.

IBHE Deputy Director Ross Hodel said when the board received the plans from NIU in January, the Rockford campus was ranked 20th or 21st on a list of priority projects.

However, La Tourette said the questionnaire asked for details usually asked for after money for planning is released.

“That’s the nature of the project,” Hodel said. Different types of questions were used because of the way the legislation for the project was worded, but they were typical questions, he said.

The board will review the questionnaire later this week or next week, Hodel said.