The Illinois Board of Higher Education has subjected state universities to microscopic examinations for the last two years. Now the IBHE might find itself under close scrutiny.

Legislative hearings on the IBHE’s Priorities, Quality and Productivity initiative will be held at NIU Oct. 21.

The Illinois senate’s subcommittee on higher education will conduct the hearings to gather information on the controversial PQP initiative. Under the weight of PQP recommendations, 108 academic programs were eliminated statewide last year.

State Sen. Bradley Burzynski (R-Sycamore) said the hearings will review the results of the first two years of PQP from the presidents’ and campus viewpoints.

Burzynski said after discussing the campus hearings with the IBHE further actions could result; however, he would not be specific.

The hearing will be the first of three planned hearings throughout the state. The dates and locations for the other two hearings have not been set but might take place at Southern Illinois University and Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

NIU President John La Tourette said the hearings might be an indication the legislature wants to be on the forefront of higher education issues.

Last year the legislature became involved in the PQP process when IBHE Chairman Arthur Quern considered going to the General Assembly and asking that program elimination power be granted to the IBHE.

The legislature responded to Quern by passing a resolution stating the IBHE did not have program cutting power and therefore should not try to force universities to eliminate programs.

La Tourette said, “The hearings will be a good opportunity for the legislature to learn about PQP and hear about its positive and negative aspects.”

La Tourette said the hearings will give the universities a chance to explain the complexities of carrying out an initiative on a university campus.

“It is not easy to manage a shared governance process and meet the timelines of Quern and the IBHE,” he said.

La Tourette said while there was not a lack of understanding on the part of the IBHE, there was a lack of appreciation of the complexity of campus processes.

The hearings will come after the IBHE held a two-day meeting Thursday and Friday of last week when PQP and the results of the first leg of the initiative were discussed.

In an interview at that meeting Quern said the legislature is welcome to become involved in the process.

“(The IBHE) is not worried about criticism, generally the initiative has been endorsed by higher education.”

He added, “The idea an institution agrees or disagrees on a recommendation was to be expected.”

At the Thursday and Friday meetings, university presidents presented productivity reports outlining university related actions on PQP. Each state university will now be evaluated on how well it carried out the process.