NIU officials agree the recently developed Visiting Minority Faculty Program will benefit NIU.

Provost Kendall Baker said his office is allocating $75,000 for the program from the academic budget because the state gave the university “additional resources.”

“What we’re trying to do is to expand, reinforce and strengthen the multicultural environment of the university,” Baker said.

Admasu Zike, director of the Center for Black Studies, said, “It (the program) would be a motivation for all students. All students would have a chance to have a prominent minority scholar (as a teacher).”

Jeff Kowalski, acting director for the Center for Latino and Latin American studies, said the program “will enable NIU to attract some of the best known minority faculty members in the U.S.”

NIU decided on the program last fall and visits from minority faculty are expected in the next school year, Baker said.

The program is important because there is a “limited pool of available minority faculty,” he said, adding, the university can recruit faculty employed at other universities.

The goal of the program is to bring distinguished minority scholars and professionals to NIU for one semester, Baker said.

A benefit of the program is hiring “high caliber” people that the university could not afford to hire on a permanent basis, Zike said.

NIU will ask minority faculty to teach for at least a semester, however, depending on circumstances the visits could range from one month to an academic year, Baker said.

The visiting positions will rotate among the colleges yearly, but because of its size, liberal arts and sciences will be able to invite two minority faculty in a four year period, he said.

The program will be limited to individuals of black, Hispanic, native American or Asian background, Baker said.