An Illinois Board of Higher Education official said “it would be very unfortunate” if NIU does not change its college entrance requirements to meet the requirements recommended by the board.

NIU Admissions Director Dan Oborn said Wednesday that NIU probably would not change its minimum entrance requirements if the IBHE votes to make the entrance requirements to Illinois colleges optional.

John Huther, IBHE deputy director for fiscal affairs, said, “It would be unfortunate if our advisory recommendations were ignored.”

uther said he does not know whether other Illinois colleges also plan to maintain current entrance requirements if the IBHE requirements become optional, but it is a question that the IBHE will ask the universities soon.

The IBHE might recommend college applicants to complete four years of English, three years each of social studies, science and math, and two years of a foreign language. NIU’s current requirements include one year fewer in each subject.

The IBHE will decide whether to make the requirements advisory or mandatory at its February meeting.

uther said the IBHE’s suggested entrance requirements are at the very minimum. “The board also identified four years (of study) in each subject as the best requirements.”

Oborn said the present NIU requirements allow flexibility in high school students’ schedules. It allows the students to take courses other than college preparatory ones.

uther said, “This (the entrance requirements) is the only area traditionally under the control and administration of the academic part of the university that the board has spoken to.” He would like the academic offices of the universities to take the issue under advisement, he added.

Among possible reasons to oppose the IBHE recommendation, Oborn said admission standards at the university level should be set with cooperation from area high schools. He said the current NIU requirements were determined by NIU faculty as a result of a curriculum review.

uther said universities established their own entrance requirements until 1985, when the IBHE passed the new admissions standards.

However, he said the IBHE does not agree with universities setting their own requirements. “That’s why a set of minimum requirements were identified in the first place,” said Huther.

The new requirements should have taken effect in 1990, but were postponed until 1993 by the state legislature.