NIU officials clashed with the Illinois Board of Higher Education Wednesday on two economic issues.

NIU students likely will see a tuition hike again this year, despite recommendations from the Illinois Board of Higher Education. A further economic burden might be suffered by students receiving tuition waivers if NIU decides to reduce the amount of waivers granted in order to avoid penalties from the IBHE next year.

At a Board of Regents meeting, NIU President John La Tourette said next year’s tuition hike was part of a decision made last year to “phase in a higher tuition over a three-year period to ease the burden on students.”

La Tourette said the option to the three-year hike was an on-time increase similar to that levied on Southern Illinois University students last year.

He said the decision was more consistent with long-run planning so the increases would span a three-year time period, which would allow better planning as to where the additional funds would be allocated.

La Tourette said the three-year schedule divided the increase into 40 percent the first year, 40 percent the second year and 20 percent the third.

The tuition increase will have to be added to the IBHE approved budget recommendations for next year which were passed at a Jan. 5 meeting. The IBHE recommendations made headlines when a tuition increase was not included.

La Tourette said the IBHE might have made this proposal with the already-planned Regents tuition hike in mind. He said a reason for them to do this would be to make them look more concerned with affordability than the Regents.

Because the tuition freeze is now in the IBHE budget recommendations, the Regents will have to have its planned hike tacked onto the recommendations before they enter the legislature, La Tourette said.

Also discussed in the Regents Chancellor’s report is a $50,400 negative adjustment for NIU which was incurred because the university did not follow IBHE guidelines for the distribution of tuition waivers.

IBHE Public Relations Director Ross Hodel said NIU exceeded a guideline that prohibits universities from distribution of tuition waivers that in dollar value exceed the total gross tuition that would be taken in if all students paid full tuition rates.

Hodel said 705 waivers were distributed. Of those, 63 went to dependents of NIU staff, 120 went to dependents of support staff, 260 were granted on the basis of academics and another 104 were given on the basis of musical/artistic talent to music and art students, Hodel said. Another 158 were given to participants in NIU athletics.

La Tourette said, “There are no dollars involved, just tuition waivers.” Tuition waivers entitle the recipients to attend NIU without paying tuition.

When asked if the $50,400 negative adjustment to NIU’s budget recommendation constituted “dollars involved,” La Tourette said, “That could be the case.”

He said no groups were slated for a decrease in the amount of waivers granted to them. La Tourette explained that the number of waivers granted could fluctuate down into the IBHE-mandated range. “You can’t always completely control this,” he said.

La Tourette also said the $50,400 was a modest amount compared to the amount of tuition taken in by NIU. He said the adjustment accounted for about 20-24 waivers that exceeded the IBHE limit.