Those who tesified at the five hearing panels held throughout Illinois to evaluate the effectiveness of the state’s higher education governing boards were either highly critical of the System of Systems, or felt the system could not be better.

J. Carroll Moody, University Council executive secretary, said some people who testified said it does not matter what the governing system is if there is not adequate funding for higher education. The governor and legislature decide this, so the governing system does not matter, he said. Others who testified defended the system, and said “the system is serving people very well.”

The hearings are a result of Senate Resolution 460, which calls upon the Commission on Intergovernmental Cooperation to “conduct a study of the various systems’ governing boards in higher education and evaluate the effectiveness of the current systems.”

A total of five hearings at the State of Illinois Center, Chicago, NIU, Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University and Western Illinois University were completed in November.

Moody said those who were critical proposed three models on how the system should be changed. One model proposed would be a single governing board for all—a “super Illinois Board of Higher Education,” he said.

Another model proposed is each school should have its own governing board. Another suggestion was a variation of California’s system, which includes three separate governing boards. All graduate research universities are grouped under one board. Undergraduate schools under another board, and one board governing community colleges.

If this would exist in Illinois, the following would be grouped under one board as graduate research institutions: University of Illinois, SIU and NIU, Moody said. The other schools would fit in with undergraduate and limited graduate institutions.

Sen. Patrick Welch, D-LaSalle-Peru, said all of the comments at the panels will be reported to the Illinois General Assembly.