Harper College and NIU appear to be butting heads over a partnership on a four-year nursing program.

A press release issued Tuesday said NIU and Harper entered into a partnership to offer a four year nursing program at Harper’s campus in Palatine.

Emily Ngo from the Daily Herald reported a different story Wednesday, citing Harper officials who said the arrangement is neither established nor complete.

At the same time, Harper College is the focus of Illinois Senate Bill 131. If passed, Senate Bill 131 would allow Harper College to begin pilot four-year baccalaureate programs in nursing and technology management.

The pilot programs would receive funding only from tuition and corporate donations, and the bill does not seek additional tax money from the state. The nursing program would address an area hospital shortage of nursing students with bachelor’s degrees.

The bill passed 7-6 Wednesday, and moves to the main floor next.

“There’s a lot of passion both for and against it,” said Harper spokesman Phil Burdick.

Harper is looking for a solution, Burdick said, that “serves all the needs of the community,” and he expects negotiations to continue toward an eventual partnership with NIU.

NIU tells a different story

“We have already committed,” said Melanie Magara, assistant vice president of NIU Public Affairs.

NIU hired one full-time professor to teach at Harper, Magara said, and students planning for fall need to know as quickly as possible when the program will be available. She said the two schools discussed the partnership in detail for the past six months, and sometime in the fall is the target date.

Virginia Cassidy told this to the State House Committee Wednesday, as she attended several of the meetings between the two administrations. Cassidy, NIU’s associate vice provost for Academic Planning & Development, said Harper President Robert L. Breuder asked NIU President John Peters in the last meeting when the partnership could be solidified, to which Peters responded with a fall target date.

Cassidy said Breuder agreed, and Magara said NIU considers this a “contract.”

Burdick said the fall date can not be set in stone this prematurely, and Harper still would need to conduct many more studies to determine class sizes and budget requirements for the program.

Harper’s initial plans

“They were toying with the idea for two years,” said Cary Wolovick, 2004-05 student senate treasurer at Harper. “They brought it to us two years ago.” Wolovick, now a junior political science and history double major at NIU, said during his time on the Senate, the administration displayed the results of a variety of studies including a plan to build a 100-student residence hall.

“They always gave us the rosy picture,” Wolovick said. He said the studies were an attempt to win over the public opinion at the school. Despite the pressure by the administration, Wolovick said many faculty members and student representatives privately disagreed with the plan.

The impression the administration left on the Senate, Wolovick said, is that Harper wants to eventually become a four-year university. He said the general consensus of the Senate at Harper during this time was to seek alternative solutions, such as partnership with NIU, although this view did not sway the administration.

Correction – Contrary to what was reported in Friday’s Northern Star, Illinois Senate Bill 131, which would allow Harper College to begin a 4-year bachelorette program in Nursing and Technology Management, was passed 7-6 by a committee, not the senate. The Star regrets the error.