The first Faculty Senate meeting of the semester got underway Wednesday with an urge for members to join the First-Year Connections program.

“We really want you to see that this is a worthwhile program,” said Chris Kubic, assistant director of the Orientation Office.

Kubic said that the First-Year Connections program consists of UNIV 101 and Student Faculty Links, which is coordinated through Kubic’s office.

Students are teamed with a faculty member who they are compatible with, which helps the students get in touch with NIU’s student body, learn about retention and student development issues, and help students succeed while at NIU and beyond.

“Students have said that they have benefited from this by seeing exactly what they had to do to succeed at NIU,” Kubic said. “These are the students who are more involved and more dedicated. These are the kinds of students we want in our classes.”

Patricia Henry, NIU representative to the Faculty Adviser Council to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, spoke about the Dec. 6 FAC-IBHE meeting. Major points of interest included the emphasis on integrating pre-school through higher education as a basis of using resources in an efficient manner by balancing all grades to the same importance.

“This raises a lot of concerns,” Henry said. “With the balancing of all grades, higher education will lose a lot of credit by being seen as ‘just another grade,’ losing its special role as an institution.”

Henry also commented on the lingering budget question with an answer of, “No one really knows what is going on with that.”

As of Dec. 4, IBHE was about to vote on a proposed $2.7 billion budget, an increase of nearly $124 million in general funds spent during the fiscal year. Most of the money is directed toward necessary repairs and renovations, and projects previously committed to or partially funded.

Sue Willis, president of Faculty Senate, said the state revenue shortfall could be as high as $5 billion.

Willis informed the senate of the recent formation of a new degree approved by the Board of Trustees. A doctor of audiology degree now will be offered by the Department of Communicative Disorders.