The proposed University of Illinois DuPage Center is meeting growing opposition.

Last week Sen. Patrick Welch, D-Peru, whose district includes DeKalb, announced he might try to block the $25 million recommended by the Illinois Board of Higher Education for the multi-university.

Recently, the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago said it is against the project because it presents another power play by U of I, a possible duplication of courses and a burden on taxpayers, said IIT Vice President Edwin Stueben.

Originally, plans for the multi-university included graduate-level courses to be taught by professors from U of I at Champaign-Urbana and Chicago (UIC) campuses, IIT, NIU, Northwestern University in Evanston and Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne.

But IIT has no plans to participate fully with the project, Stueben said. U of I is taking its place as the lead institution and NIU’s “minimal” role has been termed as “U of I’s way of keeping NIU quiet” by Welch.

Stueben said since the project was introduced as a multi-university, “it should be thought of as a multi-university.”

Stueben told the Chicago Tribune Monday, “As far as we can see it, it’s an extension of U of I.”

Welch said in a previous interview plans for the proposed center “reveal favoritism of the governor and the IBHE toward U of I.”

In October, the IBHE awarded U of I $3 million to launch the project, naming Irving Miller—chairman of the chemical engineering department of at UIC—director of the planning efforts.

The $25 million is waiting approval by state legislators, like Welch, for the final go-ahead on the project.

In addition to disapproving U of I dominance in the project, Stueben said IIT is concerned with the possibility of the DuPage Center duplicating chemical engineering and computer science courses IIT currently offers.

“The question is whether the center should offer master’s degrees in areas we already have,” Stueben said.

IIT’s West Campus, scheduled to open in Wheaton in January 1991, will acquire the courses IIT has held since 1986 in a rented building at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Stueben said. More than 850 students are enrolled at the campus, he said.

IIT only will be involved with research programs at the DuPage Center, because “we don’t need the classroom space” for educational purposes, he said.

However, U of I is requesting an “inappropriately large” amount of space, 150,000 square feet, for the center’s site, Stueben said. One-third of the space is sufficient, he said.

IIT’s third fear is “an immediate burden on the taxpayers,” Stueben said.

U of I claims the taxpayers might not be pressured. “If we run the program primarily for companies, they will pick up the bill,” Miller previously said.

But although tuition at the DuPage Center might be paid by the students’ employers, taxpayers would still be providing the $25 million to build the center, Stueben said.

“IIT is a private institution,” Stueben said. “No public money is involved.”