Many NIU programs could suffer irreparable damage if they are once again targeted for elimination this fall on the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s program “hit list.”

Daniel Riffe, chair of the journalism department, said the damage is done to many programs that were on the IBHE hit list last fall.

“What person who is making a serious career move is going to go to a school that some board has said is poor quality?” Riffe asked.

Many students do not realize the IBHE does not have the power to eliminate programs or cut funding. Only the Board of Regents, NIU’s governing board, has the power to eliminate a program.

Khan Mohabbat, director of graduate studies in the department of economics, spoke at a public hearing about the IBHE’s Priorities, Quality and Productivity initiative Thursday. He said many students left the program just because the Ph.D. in economics was on the hit list.

“They did not know that the IBHE does not have the power to eliminate programs. Many students left our program and countless hours were spent explaining to our present students what the situation really was,” Mohabbat said.

Additional hours were spent recruiting replacement graduate students, Mohabbat said.

The Ph.D. program in the department of geology also was under fire last year, and the undergraduate program suffered, Ross Powell, geology chair said.

“We had problems recruiting, and we had to tell incoming students that the program is liable to be potentially eliminated,” Powell said.

Although the Ph.D. program is independent from the undergraduate program, Powell said there was a loss of interest and a loss of reputation.

“It certainly hurts our reputation professionally that we have been building around the country,” Powell said.

Frederick Schwantes, chair of the psychology department, also spoke at the hearing about the possibility of the Ph.D. in psychology once again being targeted for elimination.

He said cutting the program means undergraduate students will be deprived of the opportunity to pursue doctoral work in Illinois.

“We would have to import appropriately trained individuals from other states to fill these professional positions in Illinois,” Schwantes said.

Schwantes said the Ph.D. program in psychology produces more than 10 percent of all NIU’s credit hours at the doctoral level.

“The elimination of this program, along with the College of Law, would be a major step toward eliminating other doctoral programs on this campus,” Schwantes said.

Riffe said the undergraduate program in journalism was not adversely affected when the M.A. in journalism was targeted for elimination in 1992.

“It’s hard to say. We’ve been doing so many other things with the undergraduate program. It’s hard to pull out one determining factor,” Riffe said.