NORMAL—NIU Provost Kendall Baker put in a request for NIU’s piece of the pie Wednesday at the Board of Regents Academic and Student Affairs Committee meeting at Illinois State University.

The committee met to discuss and request funds for fiscal year 1991 Program Improvements and Expansions (PIEs). Senate Bill 112, which concerns minimum admissions requirements, also was on the agenda, but was not discussed.

“It’s interesting to talk about new things,” Baker said. This is the “first time in a long time” that NIU has been able to propose new PIEs instead of revising budgets for older plans, he said.

Baker outlined a four-part plan with “clear-cut” themes. NIU’s plans concern minorities, undergraduate registration, advisement and assessment, a follow-up to review efforts and equipment needs and computerization.

Baker said NIU is developing PROMPT, an early intervention program in Rockford. PROMPT focuses on pre-collegiate education and college enhancement.

NIU also is working on PRIME, a program to recruit minority transfer students who plan careers in teaching from two Chicago community colleges, Malcolm X and Kennedy-King.

Assistant NIU Provost Lynne Waldeland said the main thrust of the PRIME program is to recruit more minorities into the teaching profession.

“It’s a cooperative education program between NIU and the community colleges,” she said. The faculty members will work together to make sure a NIU curriculum is met before—and if—the students transfer to NIU. Students also will be brought to NIU to see and become acclimated with the campus.

“We need to convince them teaching is an attractive profession,” Waldeland said.

Baker also proposed making student advisement mandatory before registration. “Its importance is it establishes a relationship between student and professor.” While the program is “not there yet,” Baker said attention and concern is increasing.

Questions about its enforceability were hard to answer, but Baker conceded that “you can’t enforce it.”

Baker said he had recently spoken with three NIU freshmen who did not know the names of their instructors. NIU “desperately” needs computerized registration via a touch-tone system and credit card tuition payment plans, he said.

Baker’s concerns with computerization at NIU were concentrated in improving a computer network. While NIU has several computer labs, they are not hooked up to each other, he said.

He is implementing a task force to look into computer access, inventory of facilities, computers in classrooms and faculty opinion. Baker seeks resources not only from the state, but also from “private vendors.”

“The student comes to the university expecting the computer will be an integral part of learning,” Baker said. “We need to purchase, establish and connect computers.”

The meeting was temporarily interrupted by a sound check of the band Love and Rockets, who performed next door to the Bone Student Center meeting room Wednesday night.