The Faculty Senate passed several resolutions during Wednesday’s meeting in an attempt to get NIU’s administrative higher-ups to play by the rules.

The resolutions addressed the issues of faculty pay cuts and pay caps, the shot-down student fee increase for intercollegiate athletics and faculty pay increases.

The first resolution is an attempt to insure that any reduction in the salaries or benefits of NIU’s professors during the summer session or the regular academic year would be shared by a similar cut in the pay and benefits of NIU’s administrators.

The FS met the proposed resolution with much debate.

“I’m for this resolution but it’s toothless,” said Associate Professor of Finance Richard Dowen.

Professor of Political Science Lawerence Finkelstein added, “What is the (resolution’s) operative implication? What is the virtue of punitive action? I’d like to see a motion that works, but this one doesn’t.”

FS President Norman Magden said, “As an approved motion, this obviously does not become policy.”

In addition to passing the resolution, the FS motioned to send it to the University Council as an “information item.”

The second recommendation the FS voted on dealt with the failed student fee increase for athletics. The resolution, which was advocated by Dowen, put the FS on record against any student fee increase which would fund intercollegiate athletics.

“The best I can tell is there was some kind of deal,” Dowen said. “What we have here is a tuition increase in disguise. What’s costing the most amount of money here is the football program, and football is, let’s face it, a disaster.

Robert Lane, professor of Operations, Management and Information Systems agreed with Dowen’s theory.

“I was a little surprised that (Athletic Director Gerald) O’Dell wasn’t worried about the athletics cut,” he said referring to a discussion between O’Dell and the FS regarding the shifting of funds from the athletic department. “Anyone who is told they are going to have half a million dollars taken out of their budget and isn’t worried worries me.

“A lot of funny things happen after the students get out in May and The Star isn’t published anymore. The point of Professor Dowen’s motion is well-intended,” he said.

The FS also passed a resolution commending NIU President John La Tourette and NIU Provost J. Carroll Moody for the salary increases which faculty have received in the 1992-93 academic year. However, the resolution did not come without some debate.

The FS voted to remove a portion of the resolution which cited the faculty pay increase at seven percent.

“I’d like to know how many of us in this room will get the seven percent,” said Professor of Communication Studies Philip Gray. “I don’t think it’s an average. I think it’s a maximum.”

Professor of Mathematical Sciences Linda Sons explained that the average increase included those professors who received extra pay for promotions and presidential teaching and research awards.