NORMAL—In an effort to maintain quality and in trend with the diminishing supply of professional nurses, NIU has decided to reduce the size of undergraduate admissions for the College of Nursing.

The nursing reductions were discussed at the Board of Regents Academic and Student Affairs Committee meeting Wednesday in Normal.

The enrollment reduction will include the admission of 200 students per year rather than 260 students. The reduction includes 30 nursing students and 30 professional nurses.

NIU Provost Kendall Baker said, “We are going to maintain quality by reducing the number of students going into the program.”

Baker said the reduction in demand of students pursuing nursing careers is due to the national problems of AIDS and low salaries in the nursing field. Most of the higher salaries available in nursing are in management positions.

Regent Clara Fitzpatrick said, “I guess nursing is becoming very much like teaching in that there is such a shortage.”

Baker said that women are not attracted to nursing as in the past because of the greater number of careers and departments open to them.

Other program reviews discussed included the recommendations for the deletion of two business and education programs.

Baker said, “Suspending the program means not enrolling students for the time being, until there is increased student demand. We are recommending the deletion of programs because the College of Business has decided that is not in their mission and (not) what they want to emphasize.”

Student demand has increased in the more technical areas of the business curriculum, such as computer simulations and applications, Baker said.

Assistant Provost Lynne Waldeland said NIU has decided to continue the masters of science degree in education and the masters degree in business education programs. The College of Business has seen increased enrollment and interest in the managment information systems and computer science curricula, she said.

Regent Sylvia Nichols expressed the need for a sexual harassment survey on the NIU, Illinois State University and Sangamon State University campuses and proposed that one be used similar to that developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The 32-item survey was conducted at U of I in Feb. 1987. The survey would be conducted at all three Regency schools but would be personalized for each campus, using the U of I survey as a basis. It would be conducted through the Affirmative Action Offices of all three schools and the population sample would be determined later.

Waldeland and Baker said that NIU Affirmative Action Director Marilyn Monteiro has not received the survey information yet.

Currently, Southern Illinois University is developing a similar survey for their campus at Carbondale.

Baker also discussed the expansion of the CHANCE program in the fall of 1989 as part of the increased access and retention for minorities.

“What we are involving is not a so-called second year of CHANCE which is what everybody is always talking about. What we are talking about is perhaps a second year of the program in terms of what we have,” Baker said.

Baker said the program would be developed for more than two years and would make services available throughout the students’ entire college career.

Students currently enrolled in the CHANCE program are monitored only during their freshman year.