The Board of Trustees approved a $388 million budget for Fiscal Year 2016 Thursday.

The budget is an 8.6 percent reduction from FY 2015’s budget of $424.5 million. A state budget for Illinois has not been approved, but Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed a $29.3 million cut to NIU’s state allocated budget in February.

Trustee Cherilyn Murer said state funding for universities has been an ongoing issue for years, and NIU should improve in other forms of university funding.

“But We’ve done a great job on personal philanthropy of the university, but I think corporate philanthropy and corporate relationship building is going to be another area for us to focus on,” Murer said.