For the first time since fiscal year 2001, the State of Illinois is finally able to increase its budget for higher education. It’s about time.

According to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, total state funding for higher education has declined 12.9 percent since fiscal year 2001, and public universities like NIU, where a whopping 75 percent of the student body relies on financial aid, were hit especially hard. This plummet in funds helped mark a dismal slope in the 16.2 percent decrease of state funding for public universities since 1991.

Although the increase is a relatively diminutive 2.3 percent, this extra money is more than welcomed by NIU.

In a Feb. address this year, NIU President John Peters projected the money would be put to use in several different areas of NIU, but “improving faculty and staff salaries” and “adding critical faculty positions in highly impacted areas” were among the most urgent.

The Northern Star feels that these regions of academic improvement are also necessary. Some of NIU’s departments are simply not equipped with the quantity and quality of faculty that our student body requires: every year, many students are not able to get into classes they are required to take because there just is not enough space. An improvement in teachers’ salaries, as well as added staffing in many cramped departments, would be a big step in the right direction for NIU.

Even though higher education funding in Illinois is less than satisfactory, a small raise is still a raise. In the case of NIU, this increase is a badly needed boost that can make a difference in the quality of our schooling.