The working draft of NIU’s 1993 productivity report, which recommends the elimination of 18 academic programs, is headed to the Faculty Senate for discussion.

The framework of the draft resulted from program reviews of the Academic Planning Council. The APC reviewed NIU programs cited for consolidation or elimination by the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s Priorities, Quality and Productivity (PQP) initiative which called for universities to streamline their programs.

The APC wrapped up the review process and finalized its recommendation to the administration at its meeting Monday. Programs were placed in categories of high, medium and low priority to NIU’s academic mission.

The draft of the productivity report recommends all programs listed as low and middle priority by the APC, with the exception of the Ph.D. in economics, be eliminated.

The programs listed for elimination include the master of arts in journalism, Russian and French and the master of science in education in the schools of business management and business education.

The draft is headed to the Faculty Senate for discussion.

“From the very beginning, we (NIU administration) said the process would go from the APC to the Faculty Senate,” said NIU Provost J. Carroll Moody. “I suppose the Faculty Senate might want it discussed in the University Council, but we are really running up against a (Board of Regents) deadline.”

Moody said the FS is only “a consultation body” and cannot directly affect or change the report.

Jo Anne Fox, APC member and professor of theatre arts, said, “All the senate can do is make a recommendation.”

The report will then be taken to the Regents during its March meeting. “The Board of Regents is considering it a discussion paper,” Moody said.

“This will not be the report, in the same format, which will go to the IBHE in October,” he added. “The IBHE wanted dollar amounts for the programs on this list, and for many of them

that is going to be difficult to do.”

Moody said the draft report could be brought back to the APC for further review after the administration has received feedback from the FS and the Regents.

In addition, APC members addressed the effect of the PQP reviewing process on the APC as a university committee.

“I think, whether we liked it or not, this was a very different kind of year due to the PQP process,” Fox said. “In its evaluation of programs, it (the APC) has certainly served its purpose.”

Jerrold Zar, assistant provost for Graduate Studies and Research, said, “This committee (the APC) has shown it is able to respond and can respond to university-wide problems.”

In regard to Zar’s statement and other questions raised by APC members concerning the council’s mission, Waldeland said, “We (the APC) have to do the (program) reviews, but we’re supposed to be planning as well. It may be something we ought to be thinking about.”

Moody said the APC’s next task in regard to the PQP initiative will focus of the university’s mission statement. “The mission statement issue is probably going to come to the APC next year, because the IBHE has told us they want discussion of the university mission statements,” he said.