Faculty Senate members gathered in the Sky Room in the Holmes Student Center Wednesday to discuss new business and announcements.

Alan Rosenbaum, president of the senate, discussed the strategic plan for the enrollment management task force and how it will help increase the enrollment at NIU.

“The financial crises of last year drove home the idea that NIU is very dependent on tuition dollars and fees to meet our payroll,” Rosenbaum said. “We are very fortunate that the state came up with the share of money that they owed us. We did not have to go and borrow money, which was a main concern of us and [President] Peters. The only reason we got through was because of tuition dollars and fees. The president is very enthusiastic about this mission.”

Senate member Kerry Freedman discussed her report on the strategic plan for enrollment management task force, which is a group in charge with the review of issues facing student enrollment.

“The primary goal of the task force is to set and reach the target of 25,400 students, or 625,000 credit hours,” Freedman said.

Freedman also discussed the increase of grants received by the university.

“The good news is our grants have increased substantially, and most of it being due to the American Recovery Reinvestment Act,” Freedman said.

Senate member Jay Monteiro talked about the financial audit of NIU.

“We were happy to see there were zero financial audit findings,” Monteiro said. “NIU also saw an increase in net assets by 6 million dollars.”

The tuition rates were also a discussion topic.

“[The Board of Trustees] approved the tuition rates for the upcoming year which included a 9.5 [percent] tuition increase for the incoming class,” Rosenbaum said. “They can only change the tuition for the incoming class and have to protect that tuition for, I think, 5 years. So we are not allowed to raise that tuition.”