Some NIU purchases and capital projects no longer will require Board of Regents approval, while others only will require review and concurrence with new amendments to the board’s rules.

egents Chancellor Roderick Groves said th amendments deal with purchasing, capital projects and land acquisition. The amendments are essentially the same for the three areas, he said.

The Regents approved the amendments Thursday during the board meeting.

“(These changes) better define what transactions need to be approved by the Board of Regents and which can be approved at the university level,” Groves said.

“Most routine purchases can be done at the university level without Board of Regents approval and consequently meant significant and frequent approvals by the board and a lot more mechanical complexities.”

Groves said the three Regency universities “can go into and authorize” facilities projects costing less than $25,000 without review or approval by the Regents or the Chancellor’s Office.

Universities cannot do much remodeling or renovation on houses or buildings with this type of money, he said.

Universities can authorize any projects or purchases which cost between $25,000-$100,000, but the chancellor and his staff have to review and agree with them, Groves said. He said any project which costs more than $100,000 had to go before the Regents for approval.

Groves said similar lines of approval exist with labor costs. Land purchases generally have to receive Regents approval, he said, because most of them cost more than $100,000.

“They’re (amendments) part of a general purpose to concentrate policy issues rather than little transactions,” Groves said.

“It is intended to streamline and have the board concentrate on bigger issues instead of day-to-daay operations. The board had responsibilty for oversight.”

Groves said the amendments began as discussions among his staff with input from the three Regency universities: NIU, Sangamon State and Illinois State.

Eddie Williams, NIU vice president for finance and planning, said even though the amendments might not require board approval or request, the university still would have to compile a report at the end of the fiscal year about all purchases, projects and acquisitions and send it to Groves. Groves then would provide a report to the Regents, Williams said.

“I think it is a major breakthrough–very creative and very positive,” he said. “Too much time (was being spent on) details and not much time on policy.”

Williams said the amendments would remove the need to wait for a Regents meeting to approve purchases. For example, any university purchases made after the Oct. 15 meeting had to wait until last week for approval, he said.

egent Milton McClure said at last week’s meeting he has “always wanted to reduce the amount of paperwork” and he wants to eliminate another bureaucratic layer. He also pushed having these amendments put on the Council of President’s agenda at its next meeting.

NIU President John LaTourette was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

owever, SSU Durward Long in a statement last week said, “The use of the language ‘review and concurrence’ reflects a substantive difference from ‘approval and authorization’ and addresses at least the concept.”

Long said he is bothered that purchases exempt from bidding, for example, will be reviewed by the Chancellor’s Office regardless of amount or purpose but he said those items could be clarified or simplified later.