NORMAL—NIU’s Southeast Asian Studies will be able to enhance its programming with a $572,000 grant to NIU.

The Board of Regents approved the Luce Foundation Grant Thursday along with a grant to provide funding for NIU’s Technology Commercialization Center.

NIU will be receiving funds for the grant over the next four years, Regents’ Chancellor Roderick Groves said.

The grant is titled “The Past and Future of Southeast Asian Studies at NIU,” the Chancellor’s report stated. “The grant funding will enable NIU to enhance its instruction, research and public service programming in Southeast Asian studies,” the report stated.

NIU President John LaTourette said, “The Luce Foundation Grant is a very prestigious grant for the institution. It is one of the largest grants NIU has ever received.”

In addition, funds for the commercialization center will be provided from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, the report stated.

Groves said NIU already has been awarded more than $247,000 since January, 1987. NIU has received an award from the department of commerce for the past three years, the report stated.

“NIU’s technology commercialization center program provides for delivery or brokering of the support needed to move a technology-based innovation from its creation through a product development phase into commercialization,” the report stated.

Also approved by the Regents was a request from NIU to enter into a finance agreement over a five-year period for a new payroll/personnel system.

The system, called, “The Human Resources Management System Software and Consultation System” will cost a total of $549,175, LaTourette’s report to the Regent’s stated.

“With the implementation of the new payroll system, the university will be in compliance with all mandated changes and will be able to eliminate excessive payroll system maintenance expense, keep payroll and benefits processing current in the future, and provide significant service improvements for university faculty and staff,” the president’s report stated.

LaTourette said, “This new system is long overdue. The current system is old, it was developed in the 1960s.”

In other matters, the board approved NIU’s request to reduce the course delivery fee of $118 for the Master in Business Administration program offerings. The fee will be decreased by $12.50 per semester hour, the Chancellor’s report stated.

The purpose of the reduction is to offset the $150 tuition increase this semester, LaTourette said. “It is unfair to tack on top of the special fee a tuition increase,” he said.

The intent of the special course fee was to provide additional revenues to offset increased costs of the MBA programs, the Chancellor’s report stated.