Members of both the administrative and academic program prioritization student task forces have been announced with 13 students on each task force.

Program prioritization allows for faculty and students to systematically rank administrative and academic programs on campus using data reports, thus allowing monetary allocations to be made efficiently. The process began in 2014.

The program prioritization student task forces will be responsible for reviewing the rankings and reports created by the original task forces during the last two weeks of the spring 2016 semester. They are expected to create formal responses that will be sent to key decision makers at NIU, including NIU President Doug Baker, said Dillon Domke, Student Association Senate Speaker.

“[NIU] has always valued the opinion of the students,” Domke said. “I think this is one of the most formal processes of opinion that we’ve gone through as students, so I think it will make a great impact on the decision-makers for this process.”

An ad-hoc committee of five SA senators, including Domke, was responsible for reviewing the 80 applications for the task forces, which had to be submitted by March 11. The final candidates were chosen Thursday. A total of eight alternates were also selected, according to an SA news release.

Applicants were reviewed based on a set of “guiding principles” rather than requirements. Committee members were looking for a range in academic experiences, specifically a variety of majors, club involvement and years in school, Domke said.

“We want the students on the task force to be thinking and doing their work with the best interest of [NIU] as a whole in their mind,” Domke said.

Task force members will partake in three training sessions during the weeks of April 10, 17 and 24. The first will focus on a general explanation of program prioritization, including its expected impact and why it is occurring. The second will focus on the specific criteria and weighting used to rank NIU programs. The last will focus on the five categories by which the programs are ranked, ranging from “requires more funding” to “should be cut.”

“When we release our report on May 2, the student program prioritization task force will have an opportunity to respond to our report, just like University Council, Faculty Senate or the Operating Staff Council or what have you,” said Matt Streb, administrative task force co-chair, at a Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday.

Planning for the task forces beyond the end of this semester has not begun because Domke said he does not want to delegate tasks beyond the end of his term.

“I definitely don’t want to speak on behalf of whoever is [elected into office] because it’s an important process, and if I’m not here to oversee it,” Domke said. “I don’t want to be the one calling the shots.”