Two bills requesting a separate governing board for NIU and three tuition bills were discussed at Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting in the Holmes Student Center Skyroom.

The Board of Regents, which governs NIU, Illinois State University in Normal and Sangamon State University in Springfield, met at NIU Wednesday and Thursday.

Phil Adams, the Regents director of legislative and internal affairs, said a procedural problem in the Illinois Senate has delayed SB0001, the senate bill requesting a separate governing board for NIU.

Adams said, “There has been an internal procedural squabble…. Two members of the Democratic majority have decided just yesterday to go with the Republicans on procedural issues, and those issues would severely restrict the president of the Senate’s authority and make some rather major changes in committee structure.”

Gov. James Thompson will not get involved because it is an internal legislative problem, Adams said.

The first committee meeting of the Senate Higher Education Committee is scheduled for Tuesday. A similar House bill will be reviewed by the House Higher Education Comittee Wednesday.

Three bills were not approved by the House Higher Education Committee, but a bill proposing the funding of a scholarship program on an entitlement basis requiring $100 million in financial aid to be taken from university budgets might be reviewed again. Rep. David Hultgren, R-Monmouth, proposed the bill which has not been endorsed by the Illinois Board of Higher Education or the Illinois State Scholarship Commission.

“It is a bill which would make a funding for the scholarship commission’s MAP (Monetary Award Program) program prior to any other full funding effort and prior to any other funding in higher education and raising the level to that of the 65 percent of the average rate of tuition. That bill has a price tag close to that of $98 million,” he said.

The scholarship program currently pays for either full tuition and fees or partial tuition and fees. The minimum amount paid ranges from $300 per year to full tuition and fees.

Board of Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves said, “It would call for a wholesale shift from the public sector to the private sector.”

Groves and Adams have met with many members of the House Higher Education Committee to discuss problems with the bill that “would place a tremendous burden on public universities,” Adams said.

Groves said, “That (the scholarship bill) is a bill which would place whole funding of scholarships on a priority basis and would have the effect of moving close to $100 million out of public higher education over to the scholarship commission.

“Twenty million of that would be funneled back to the public institutions of higher education approximately $75 to $77 million of it would go to private institutions. Of course, everyone in public higher education is strongly opposed to that idea. We have been doing our own share of lobbying on that and we will continue to do our fair share of lobbying on that.”