Concerns about reducing undergraduate enrollment as proposed in NIU Provost Kendall Baker’s “Working Priorities” paper were discussed by the Council on Instruction Thursday.

Baker met with the council in order to answer questions about his paper, which was written in response to NIU’s budget cuts.

Council members questioned the significance of reducing the undergraduate enrollment by 1,000 students over a five-year period, as proposed in the paper. “If it were possible to reduce to a more substantiated number immediately, that would be preferred,” Baker said.

owever, Baker noted because of the size of the faculty, including the number of tenured faculty, it would not be possible to reduce enrollment quickly. In addition, he said the university needs to address the problem in terms of the deficits prior to the budget cut. “Before the budget cut there was an imbalance between resources and programming. Some sort of change in enrollment is needed to correct the problem.

“The university needs to provide a better balance between programming and resources,” Baker said.

Council member Stephen Haliczer, associate history professor, questioned whether or not enrollment still would be reduced if resources were restored through a tax increase.

“Regardless of resources, we would still be reducing undergraduate enrollment,” Baker said. He said there are many variables involved in projecting enrollment such as show rate, retention rate and the number of high school graduates.

“All we can do is make projections based on what we know, depending on how the variables impact the university. At this point and time the university is looking at reducing undergradute enrollment,” Baker said.

Council members also questioned if Baker favored two possible ways to reduce enrollment such as raising minimum admission standards or stopping admissions at a certain point.

Baker said he could not choose between the two possibilities. However, he said, “Because of the favorable application flow we can take the best students meeting the minimum requirements.”

Baker and the council members also discussed how the selection of only the best students would change the composition of the student body. “We will try to maintain the strongest mix of students,” Baker said. He assured the council that qualified minority students would be admitted.

“We would not let our admission standards become so high that we would not get any of these students,” Baker said.

owever, council members were concerned about support systems for minority students, as well as other disadvantaged students. “Support systems for non-minority students at the bottom of the index level are a key issue on campus,” council member Nancy Vedral said. Baker said the university needs to look at all the support systems on campus to determine their effectiveness.

In addition, Baker said a retention study needs to be taken to determine where the system is breaking down.