NIU’s 1993 Productivity Report might have a bumpy and uncertain ride ahead of it.

Created by NIU administration from recommendations made by the Academic Planning Council, the productivity report is destined to make its way through NIU’s University Council, the Board of Regents and the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE.)

The report was referred to the UC by the Faculty Senate at its March 3 meeting. At the time, NIU Provost J. Carroll Moody said the administration had not intended the report to go to the UC and FS’s decision to do so could complicate the report’s submission as a “discussion paper” to the Regents. He said the report initially was due to the Regents on March 1.

However, Moody said Tuesday the “discussion paper” has not been sent to the Regents and the submission deadline has been moved to July.

“They have changed their schedule and they will probably not discuss our productivity report until the July meeting, but they’ve asked us, when we wanted to make it public, to go ahead and submit it,” he said.

However, Regents officials claim there never was a March deadline.

“There has never been a March deadline,” said Lana Creekmur Kains, assistant to the chancellor for media relations. “It was never the intention or the requirement of the board to receive the paper in March either as an action or discussion paper.”

Kains said the Regents’ dates for reviewing the productivity report “were never set in stone.” She also explained where there could be some confusion in administrative communication regarding the destination of the report.

She said, “If a university wanted to send the chancellor’s staff the discussion paper then that is where the miscommunication might have come from.”

Kains said the report is intended to be sent to the IBHE, back to NIU and then to the Regents.

Moody said there might be some implementation of the productivity report at that time or earlier.

In addition, the UC might address the report at today’s meeting.

UC Executive Secretary Norman Magden said he is uncertain if or how the productivity report will be discussed.

The FS had sent the report to the UC “for consideration if they wish to consider it,” Magden said. “At the moment, agenda-wise, it (the productivity report) is in ‘comments and questions from the floor.’ There’s a number of things that could happen tomorrow.”