Inadequate funding has led to the alteration of NIU’s dietetics program.

The cooperative undergraduate program was replaced last spring by PLAN 4, which accepts graduate students instead of undergraduates. The CUP program was eliminated due to a lack of funds, said Ellen Parham, a professor in NIU’s Human and Family Resources department.

The difference between the programs is students now will satisfy their clinical requirements after graduation instead of before they graduate.

The last class of students in the CUP program will graduate at the end of this semester. New PLAN 4 students, who began in the program this fall, now are in their “warm-up” semester, Parham said.

Although the CUP program was exciting for the students, it was also “resource expensive,” Parham said. The program required faculty members to work closely with students, which made costs higher, she said.

PLAN 4 will include more “mature and prepared” students who require “less hand-holding” from faculty members, Parham said. The CUP program often put students under great stress because they were put into demanding learning situations, she said.

The PLAN 4 program more closely reflects trends in the dietetics community, she said. Fifty-one percent of American Dietetics Association members have or are working to get advanced degrees, she said.

The newer program also requires students to complete 900 hours of practice at a health-related facility, but students will be supervised by the facility’s staff instead of faculty members.

The program is meant to prepare students for entry level dietician jobs and qualify them to take the Registration Exam for Dietetics. The program usually allows six or seven students to enroll at a time.

Jane Hateman, head dietician at Kishwaukee Community Hospital, said many NIU student dieticians have interned at the hospital. The students were usually hired as diet clerks and worked in all areas of the department, Hateman said.

Linda Herra, head dietician at Swedish-American Hospital in Rockford, said the elimination of the cooperative program is a “sad thing” for students. Herra said her department plans to use student dieticians again in the future.

Herra received a Bachelor of Science degree in diet nutrition and food services from NIU in 1984 and compared her intense curriculum to that of a nursing student.