The Board of Regents is expected to approve the elimination of 17 NIU academic programs at its meeting Wednesday and Thursday at NIU.

The 17 programs to be deleted from NIU’s curriculum were cited by the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s Priorities, Quality and Productivity initiative and include such degrees as the M.A.‘s in Russian, French and journalism. Also included in the university’s recommendations is a down sizing of the College of Education, both on and off campus.

NIU will present the recommendations as part of its 1993 Productivity Report and the Regents will be asked to approve the recommendations.

Charles Morris, Regents vice chancellor for academic affairs said the Regents will most likely approve NIU’s recommendation to eliminate all 17 programs.

“I think there is a strong possibility that they (the program cuts) will be endorsed by the board,” he said.

NIU is hoping the program eliminations will be a satisfactory alternative to recommendations the IBHE has made through the PQP initiative. The IBHE recommendations include the elimination of NIU’s College of Law and its doctoral program in Psychology, two things NIU has said it will not do.

The Regents also will vote in a new board chair and vice chair who will be sworn in along with four new regents.

Nancy Masterson of Barrington Hills and Bill Sulaski of Normal will be sworn in alongside new student regents from Illinois State University in Normal and Sangamon State University in Springfield.

NIU will host the Regents’ meeting in the Holmes Student Center. The board will convene at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and will immediately recess into an executive session. It will reconvene at 9:00 a.m. Thursday in the HSC Regency Room.