The Illinois Board of Higher Education approved its fiscal year 2005 higher education budget recommendation Tuesday morning at the College of Lake County in Grayslake.

The budget includes $5,002.89 per Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) student for NIU. The allocation is $2,698 less than Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; $1,815.85 less than the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and $7,826.47 less than the University of Illinois at Chicago. It is $552.13 more per student than Illinois State University.

FTE enrollments are calculated by dividing the total number of undergraduate credit hours by 15 and graduate credit hours by 12.

NIU President John Peters said he does not think the state appropriately funds NIU.

“I have been arguing for three years now that the funding model does not accommodate our growth,” Peters said. “Also, there were periods of times where other institutions received more money and Northern Illinois was really held back.”

IBHE board chair James Kaplan said that the board’s staff involves each university in the budget process.

“Those processes come about in budget meetings between our staff and each university,” Kaplan said. “We go through them with a fine-toothed comb.”

Kaplan was satisfied with the budget because it reallocates $27 million to teaching without an overall increase.

“It’s the best we could do in a time that’s really rough,” Kaplan said.

The budget process at the IBHE is overseen by Daniel Layzell, deputy director for Planning and Budgeting.

“Part of our job is to try to reconcile what we know to be the needs of higher education within the broader reality of what the governor and General Assembly are dealing with,” Layzell said. “What we’ve tried to do is set forth what we see as a realistic plan.”

Because Layzell has been involved with the IBHE for only two years, he was unable to comment on the historical funding of public universities.

Considering current state finances, board member Frances Carroll said she was pleased with the budget.

“We did the best we could,” Carroll said.

The IBHE’s decision is only a recommendation.

“This is just one step in the process,” Layzell said. “The next step will be the governor’s budget, which will be released on Feb. 18, and then the General Assembly will deliberate on that.”

The fiscal year for Illinois state government, which includes NIU, begins July 1.

Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series in which the Northern Star will be taking an in-depth look at NIU’s budget.