NIU’s Fiscal Year 2004 compliance audit report showed the university had no material audit findings, members of the Board of Trustees Legislation, Audit and External Affairs committee reported Friday.

The audit looks at how the university handles money and compliance issues on all levels.

Everything from how the university handles depositing checks and collecting parking revenues to how it uses its vehicles is looked at in the audit, Trustee Myron Siegel said.

The audit is conducted by independent certified public accountants assigned by Illinois auditor general William Holland.

“For us to come out with a perfect score card, it is fantastic,” Siegel said. “But, it is also somewhat unrealistic. It’s very difficult to be 100 percent all of the time.”

In 1995, the audit report showed 34 instances where the university did not comply.

“The reality is that next year to come out with another zero is wishful thinking,” Siegel said. “With so many things in play, you could very easily miss some new requirement.”

The committee also looked at the proposed FY06 budget, which will look exactly the same as 2005’s if Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s proposals are approved later this year.

The governor proposed leaving funding for all state public universities at FY05 levels. NIU would receive $102.3 million, as opposed to the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s proposal of $103.5 million, a $1.5 million increase.

“Exact to the penny the same as 2005, it is effectively a cut because we can’t pay for increasing energy costs,” Siegel said.

The committee also learned that NIU received a $3 million federal grant which led to the establishment of the Institute for NanoScience, Engineering and Technology and saw a presentation conducted by the institute. The institute is part of the Argonne National Laboratory.

The committee also looked through substantive legislation going through the Illinois House and Senate.

One House bill would amend the election code, which would require all public universities and colleges to ask each student at the start of the academic year if they wanted to change their voter registration address.

Another House bill would create the College Campus Credit Card Marketing Act, which would prohibit advertising, marketing or merchandising credit cards on college campuses to students. It would not apply to newspapers, magazines or within a banking institute located on a college campus. State Representative Robert Pritchard (R-Hinkley) is the primary sponsor of the bill. The bill has been assigned to the Higher Education Committee.

The Legislation, Audit and External Affairs Committee meetings are held at the NIU Hoffman Estates campus.