Students should recognize faculty are also heavily affected by program prioritization and should consider this when providing feedback because they will be here long after most students.

Program prioritization is a process where task forces reviewed academic and administrative programs to recommend resource allocation for each program. These programs were then categorized into five different categories: candidate for enhanced resources, continue with no change in resources, candidate for reduced resources, requires transformation, and subject to additional review; candidate for phase-out. An April 27 town hall meeting stressed the importance of feedback on the task force reports.

I encourage all students to submit their feedback before the May 23 deadline, but it is important for students to realize that faculty are the ones who are going to be affected by the changes in the long run.

The guiding principles for NIU program prioritization guarantee that all students can finish their academic programs, according to NIU’s website.

Faculty members are going to be affected differently based on which category their programs were placed in.

The Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in History are all candidates for resource reduction. Trude Jacobsen, assistant chair and associate professor for the history department, said she was not surprised by the categorization.

“People don’t think that history degrees are going to get them anywhere, which is not true, but it’s a question of perception,” Jacobsen said. “As professors, we can’t really do very much to market our major more than we are doing currently.”

Jacobsen said she is hopeful that feedback will affect the recommendations.

“I don’t agree with program prioritization,” Jacobsen said. “I think it solidifies, and it’s installing the notion that education should be run like a business when it has never been like that in the history of the world.”

The B.A. in English received a positive recommendation, as it was categorized as a candidate for enhanced resources.

“Generally speaking, we are pleased to be recommended for additional resources, but I think the whole thing is that we are going to have to wait and see what is actually going to happen with this,” said Associate English Professor David Gorman.

Gorman said he was not sure how the university would give the English department these additional resources or if the faculty would have a say in what these resources would be. The process of prioritizing programs is going to be long, with changes most likely not being implemented until Fiscal Year 2018, according to Provost Lisa Freeman at a April 27 town hall meeting.

We, as students, may have strong opinions about the process, but the changes may not be implemented until after we are gone. That leaves the faculty members to take on the changes in their departments and the courses they teach.

“When there’s something definite that I could react to I’ll have a reaction, but until then I guess I’ll have to wait and see,” Gorman said.

Students should keep their professors and the future of NIU in mind as they submit feedback on the task force reports.