NIU and the Board of Regents will have to wait five more weeks for a decision concerning a separate governing board, while the two proposed pieces of legislation are heard in committees of the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives.

The bills outline the possibility of a separate governing board for NIU.

Representative John Countryman, R-DeKalb, said House Bill 450 has been assigned to the House Higher Education Committee although its posting has been delayed by Committee Chairman Helen Satterwaite.

Countryman said he has asked for the bill to be posted (scheduled to be heard by the committee) sometime within the next two weeks, adding that he was “rather disappointed” that his bill was not posted sooner.

“We only have five more weeks in committee and I want to make sure we get a fair hearing (for the bill),” Countryman said.

Senate Bill 0001, introduced in January by Sen. Patrick Welch, D-Peru, awaits committee assignment sometime this week. Welch said he expects the bill to be assigned to the Senate Higher Education Committee also.

Welch added that he believes the Senate committee hearings beginning this week will help to give his bill more exposure.

“Senators will start to take it more seriously … We’ll know over the next couple of weeks where we stand,” Welch said.

“John’s bill (HB 450) is going to result in being a lightning rod in the House to see where we stand early on. If there are glitches in the bill we will be able to correct those, see exactly who is opposing it, and perhaps give us a better idea of what we should do to pass the bill,” Welch said.

Both Countryman and Welch have introduced similar legislation in the past. But those attempts were defeated, a majority of them in committee hearings.

Countryman’s House Bill 700 came the closest to passing both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly in 1984. Following conference committee hearings, the House voted to approve the bill. However, the Assembly adjourned before the bill could be brought to a vote in the Senate.

The Senate also has had a history of defeating NIU separate board legislation and some opposition toward the current proposals has already been voiced.

Sen. John Maitland, R-Bloomington, proposed plans to amend Welch’s bill to include a separate board for Illinois State University at Normal. There was some speculation that the proposed amendment, which resulted from ISU student lobbying efforts, might prevent Welch’s bill from passing.

Welch stood behind an earlier statement and said he still believes Maitland should introduce his own legislation rather than amending SB 0001.

Countryman’s and Welch’s bills call for the establishment of a separate board of trustees for NIU. Nine voting members would comprise the proposed board with three members to be elected by university faculty, employees and students.

However, the two bills differ on the remaining six appointments.