An additional 2 percent reduction to the university’s budget will take effect July 1, 2004, according to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 2005 budget recommendations.

For the third straight year, the university has been trying to do more with less, said NIU President John Peters in his all-campus e-mail.

Although Peters said no academic services, job positions and health and safety needs will be sacrificed, some research areas will be eliminated to ease the university’s budget problems, said Eddie Williams, executive vice president of business and finance and chief of operations.

These research areas include the Advanced Photon Grant, a project with Argonne National Laboratory and the Illinois Consortium for Accelerator Research with Fermilab.

“We have not worked out the details for this 2 percent reduction,” Williams said.

Williams said it will take a combined effort to get through the reduction and that faculty are cooperating to strengthen the university.

Peters said that despite the reduction, the governor is trying to alter amounts for the Monetary Award Program to help the neediest students attending public universities. This was the only area that was not cut at all.

Williams said that by cutting some programs, funds are reallocated to other programs, such as the MAP grants.

“Some of the cuts will help offset the needs for financial aid,” Williams said.

According to the Illinois Government News Network, by limiting the amount of grants that goes to private college students, the governor is proposing to increase the amount of financial aid available for students attending a public institution.

Fiscal year 2004 suffered an 8.2 percent reduction. With the additional 2 percent, Williams said, the upcoming year will be a great challenge for the university.

“The process isn’t over yet,” he said.

Because of the reduced budget, NIU applicants may have to pay a fee to apply in the future. Williams said charging an application fee is not far from happening.

“With about 11,000 to 12,000 applicants every year, adding an application fee will help the university a lot,” he said.

NIU is the only public university that does not charge an application fee.

Despite these budget cuts, Williams said that NIU tries to maintain the quality of academic programs and services to students and minimize lay offs of faculty and staff.