“I think we need to re-examine the programs and processes before reallocating and increasing the budget,” Countryman said.

NIU Student Regent Nick Valadez said, “For the last 10 years the amount of funding (for higher education) has been inadequate. For the last two years it has been incompetent and irresponsible.

“Certainly, we are going to have to be competitive with salaries. We at the Board of Regents at Northern are going to have to do better in getting funding from legislation for the amount of students we serve,” Valadez said.

“Accessibility (to the university) has been sacrificed for quality in education,” he said. “Pretty soon we will be maintaining a minimum amount of quality and it will result in a minimum amount of students.”