This is the final story of a three-part series analyzing the future of NIU’s budget.

The budget cuts and tuition increase this year were the cause of much stress among university staff and students alike. But these issues are far from over, and the effects of further cuts likely will be severe.

To make sure the university is not caught off-guard this year, senior staffers have met to discuss the possibility of additional budget cuts and how best to deal with them.

“What we’re doing as a staff is we’re collectively meeting with the president, treasurer, vice president and myself and hopefully coming up with some suggestions,” Student Trustee Jesse Perez said. “We’ve been doing this, really, since last year. After seeing what happened last year, it kind of came as a surprise. So we want to be prepared this coming year to make suggestions and get more student input.”

Opportunities for student input may not be well-publicized, but they do exist. Perez and some university administrators have searched for ways to involve students.

“Last year, the [Campus Recreation] Center, [Holmes] Student Center, [University] Health Service and Athletics all had a fee-review committee, and there were students involved with that,” Perez said. “So we want to get more students actively involved in what’s happening. The more input we have, the stronger suggestions we can make.”

The Student Association has been involved in budget issues for more than a year now. SA President Kevin Miller said he has devoted much of his time to confronting state legislators about the crisis.

“Last year, I went down to Springfield several times lobbying, along with some other folks from the SA,” Miller said. “We went down just to lobby for the budget, which did have a positive impact for NIU from what I understand from talking with university officials and various state officials.”

In April, the SA Senate passed a resolution asking state representatives and senators to defend higher education, and NIU specifically. The resolution also called on students, alumni and citizens to ask their representatives in the state General Assembly to protect the school and its educational mission.

Around the same time, SA Vice President Jaime Garcia sent a message to all student organization presidents asking for their leadership in lobbying at the state level.

“We, as student leaders, realize that these cuts will cause the student enrollment at Northern Illinois University to drop,” he wrote in the letter, “resulting in a decrease in the amount of total student activities fees to be allocated to student organizations.”

With the end of elections today, student representatives expect to see a resurgence in lobbying efforts.

“We are going to try to get in with the new governor … just to try to familiarize him with the student perspective of higher education,” Miller said.