One state legislator believes approving $25 million for a DuPage County multi-university is a mistake, and NIU’s minimal role is only an attempt to appease the university.

Sen. Patrick Welch, D-Peru, whose district includes DeKalb, said he opposes the project because of a lack of money and a lack of investigation into which university would take the lead.

Welch said these actions “reveal favoritism of the governor and the IBHE toward” the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.

NIU’s role is “not very meaningful,” calling its inclusion just U of I’s way to keep NIU quiet.

The center, currently being called the University of Illinois DuPage Center, will offer graduate level courses taught by professors from the U of I Champaign and Chicago campuses, NIU, Northwestern University, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Argonne National Laboratory.

“Maybe we need a more detached view as to who is more likely to provide the best service when expansion occurs. NIU is right up the highway from DuPage County. It seems to me an area ripe for NIU to be moving into,” Welch told The Chicago Tribune.

Welch said the center is not one of U of I’s top priorities.

U of I-Chicago’s chemical engineering chairman Irving Miller is the DuPage Center’s director. Miller said Welch “misses one essential point. The project was instigated in the state legislature. The legislature asked U of I to do the project.”

The Illinois Board of Higher Education gave U of I $3 million in January to launch the project.

U of I officials are spending the next few weeks investigating possible sites for the center.

Miller said Jack Knuepfer, DuPage County Board chairman, outlined four possible sites last week. These include land in Woodridge and Warrenville, near the East-West Tollway, and land near West Chicago on land owned by the DuPage Airport Authority and near the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia.

Even if NIU had a more dominating role, Welch said the center is “an idea whose time has not yet come” and termed the recommended money inappropriate.

“With the few dollars that are available, it’s not a wise use of money,” Welch said, noting a total of $43.4 million is available for higher education spending.

The center is “not one of the top priorities for higher education,” Welch said.

The available money should be used for existing programs and avoiding tuition increases. With the budget the way it is, some schools “are considering if they can get by without tuition increases,” Welch said.

“It’s a mistake to start new projects when we have to take care of the existing ones.”

Although Welch expects more objections in the future, Miller said he has no problem with Welch’s opposition.