Petitions asking the Board of Regents to re-evaluate its decision to give former NIU president Clyde Wingfield a paid, 12-month “administrative assignment” will be presented to the Regents by the Student Association along with protests to a proposed $125 tuition increase for the spring 1989 semester.

The Regents hold their monthly meeting today in the Holmes Student Center.

SA President Paula Radtke said there are about 1,200 signatures on the petitions, and lobbying for signatures would continue until this morning. She said plans for delivering the petitions had not been decided yet. The SA’s goal was to obtain 2,000 signatures.

The petition asks the Regents to consider the effects of a tuition increase and statewide budget cuts to higher education, and to re-evaluate their decision to give Wingfield “a ‘vacation’ at our (students) expense.”

Wingfield will be working with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington D.C. for 12 months. He will receive more than $85,000, not including faculty salary increases, for his AASCU work.

“Wouldn’t it be great if administrators listened to student input,” Radtke said. “The Board of Regents is notorious for ignoring student input.”

When the petitions first started circulating, NIU Student Regent Nick Valadez said the Regents probably would not take any rescinding action.

The Regents will vote on a $125 tuition increase for the spring semester during today’s meeting. Regent Brewster Parker said the proposal probably will be “voted through.”

Radtke said tuition increases affect all students. “I don’t support any increase.” She said the Student Committee on Political Action, an SA group, will be protesting at the meeting and tuition and the Wingfield “situation” will be the protesters’ targets.

Radtke said an alternative for raising tuition is not giving salary increases to executives.