NIU faculty and students united against the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s Priorities, Quality and Productivity initiative during a public hearing with several state legislators on Thursday.

The hearing, held at the Illinois Room of the Holmes Student Center, was a four-hour discussion addressing the effects of PQP on higher education. It was the first of three hearings to be held at the state’s public universities this fall.

The panel consisted of several state legislators, including State Sen. Bradley Burzynski, R-Sycamore, who initiated the hearings in an effort to help the state legislation understand the effects of the IBHE’s PQP process.

“Ultimately, the reason we are here today is because we need more communication,” he said.

Curt Behrens, Executive Secretary of the University Council and Faculty Senate President, told the panel PQP has gotten off track from its original intention.

“It became a budget-cutting initiative. The process which led to the development of these so called ‘hit lists’ was not, in my opinion, a helpful approach to managing higher education,” Behrens said.

He said there was no evaluation of quality, and the IBHE did not communicate with the universities about the procedure.

“While we worked, the IBHE continued to make statements and not consulting us. We were playing in a game whose rules kept changing,” said Joanne Fox, professor of theater arts.

Robert Suchner, sociology professor, agreed with Behrens and said, “We do not know where the IBHE intends higher education to go, and we have not been asked.”

Jack Bennett, a DeKalb resident and a retired NIU biology professor, said he is still interested and concerned about what happens to NIU and higher education.

Bennett said during the 33 years he taught at NIU he attended many IBHE meetings. “During these years I have seen no evidence that any of these boards have any clue about higher education,” he said.

Calling the IBHE “hatchet-wielding vandals,” Bennett recommended the abolishment of the IBHE, as well as the Board of Regents and a transfer of power to NIU’s Board of Trustees.

“It demonstrated that the system failed. Cut your loses and try something else,” Bennett said.

Burzynski said it was not an option to fully eliminate the boards, but said hopefully a compromise can be made between the universities and the IBHE.

David Ripley, professor of leadership and educational policy studies, said IBHE Chair Arthur Quern has a conflict of interest because he is also on a task force looking at higher education’s governance system.

“He was appointed to the Board of Higher Education chair and now he is coordinator of a committee (task force) solely focused on the governor’s interest, and I consider that to be a conflict of interest,” Ripley said.

The task force recommended eliminating NIU’s governing board, the Board of Regents and suggested giving the IBHE program elimination power in its first report.

State Sen. Patrick O’Malley, R-Palos Park, said he agreed Quern’s appointment might be a conflict of interest. Burzynski said he too can understand NIU’s concern.

“But it is not unusual in government for people to be wearing more than one hat and to be serving more than one role,” Burzynski said.

Frederick Schwantes, a faculty member in the psychology department, spoke in defense of the doctoral program in psychology, which was targeted for elimination under PQP last year.

“My impression of the IBHE is that they did not have the brain power to do a careful state-wide analysis,” Schwantes said.

Many other faculty members represented their departments and defended their programs that were previously on the IBHE hit-list, including the Ph.D. in geology, the College of Law, and Ph.D. in economics.

Khan Mohabbat, director of graduate studies in the department of Economics, said even though the Ph.D. in economics was not eliminated, just being considered for elimination was detrimental to the program.

“The supposed ‘recommendation’ of discontinuing the economics doctoral program was taken by our students as a fait accompli, but they did not know that the IBHE does not have the power to eliminate programs. Many students left our program,” Mohabbat said.

Burzynski said he was pleased with the amount of people that spoke on behalf of NIU.

“What we’ve heard from NIU today and what I’ve heard from other universities throughout the state is that there has been a lack of communication,” Burzynski said.

“What I’m hoping for is that we can sit down with the IBHE and get the answers you have not received,” he concluded.