Faculty members will start lobbying state government for more higher education funding to avoid a tuition increase.

Faculty Assembly Chairman J. Carroll Moody urged the group to write letters to state legislators about the inadequate budget proposed by Gov. James Thompson.

“The governor’s budget eliminates over $91 million in fiscal year 1991 General Funds operating-budget increases recommended by the Illinois Board of Higher Education,” stated a letter from the office of NIU President John La Tourette.

Assembly members were given budget information packets from the president’s office to help them write individual letters to important legislators.

The packet outlined some of the IBHE requests that were eliminated or reduced:

* no funds for public universities’ programs and institutional support programs for improving undergraduate education, minority student achievement and economic development,

* no funds for general cost increases,

* no additional funding for operations and maintenance of existing facilities at public universities, and

* reduced funding for higher education faculty and staff salary increases. Salary increments will be less than the cost-of-living increases for this year.

Each NIU department chairman will be asked to involve department faculty in lobbying to include all faculty, since the “Faculty Assembly in no way represents all departments on campus,” Moody said.

As requested by assembly member Gordon Dorn, Moody will draft a collective letter on behalf of the assembly, Moody said.