Your editorial of July 1, 1987, makes a very valid point; that NIU needs additional funding if it is to take on major new obligations. That is obviously an even more compelling consideration as we confront funding levels this year which will be considerably lower than those of a year ago.

On one score, however, you make what I believe to be an inappropriate comparison. The editorial states that Northern received an appropriation last year of $96.6 million and that Southern Illinois University received an appropriation of $199.7 million. While the NIU figure is approximately correct, the SIU figure is inappropriate because it is the sum of funding for two different campuses (SIU-Carbondale and SIU-Edwardsville) and the System Office. A better comparison would be the SIU-Carbondale budget of $141.4 million. However, that budget includes a separate Medical School campus located in Springfield, obviously a major object of expenditure (approximately $25 million) which NIU does not face. An “apples to apples” comparison, therefore, would be NIU with SIU-Carbondale sans Medical School, and as you can see those budgets are much closer to one another.

Roderick T. Groves

Chancellor

Board of Regents