NIU President John Peters now holds in his hands a thick black binder containing an extensive 35-page report on undergraduate life and the improvements necessary to make the campus more workable.

Peters discharged the members of the President’s Task Force on Undergraduate Life of their duties Friday afternoon, after most of the 20-member committee gathered at the Holmes Student Center’s Heritage Room to present the committee’s findings.

The report comes almost six months after the group’s original formation in October, basing conclusions on surveys, 10 town hall meetings, individual e-mails and discussion.

“This is a herculean task that I’ve given you and that you’ve completed before the faculty and students go home,” Peters said. “We had a number of listening sessions where we let students talk. It’s critically important that we do it.”

Nolan Davis, assistant to the president and task force chairman, said he believes some of the most immediate university improvements in the report deal with academic advising, public interaction and the Greek community.

“Our job was to research solutions and look at the other options available to make things better,” Davis said. “We looked at what we’re currently doing, what needs to be changed and how to change them.

“These things will be right, be different and be successful for years and years,” he said.

Recommendations regarding academic advising, for example, regard hiring more-qualified people for advising positions, establishing more of a Web-based system and coordinating individual programs to be more efficient.

Lois Self, chair of the Department of Communication and member of the task force, said despite the effort behind the task force, she believes many topics at the end of the report received very little discussion. The section dealing specifically with student communications, for instance, attests that NIU lacks “in vehicles for effective information dissemination.”

“I think the report is rather uneven in that regard,” Self said. “There was lots of evidence and commitment on some topics and very little on others. Some topics were discussed at great length, others weren’t.”

Self participated on the academic advising project and believes that topic is one of the more important results of the task force’s work. She said high-quality advising starts at a departmental level.

She also said that many members of the task force were not able to arrange their schedules to fit all of the meetings. She said that in regards to communications, the topic was not presented well and very little discussion was fostered.

“I am not aware of the evidence for that statement,” Self said. “I’m encouraged that the president may regard this as an opportunity to increase the number of independent student media outlets, as well as training. I’ll take the recommendations as a promising opening for increased support.”

Davis and Peters both emphasized during Friday’s presentation that the report was based entirely on student input.

“These are attempts to broaden what we do, not get rid of what we’ve got,” Davis said. “Our goal is not to change any major institutions but to enhance others.”

Peters said he will present the findings to members of his senior cabinet today and from there will go to individual vice presidents of colleges for consideration and action.

Bob Wheeler, interim associate provost and chairman of the Committee on the Undergraduate Academic Environment, will oversee the group’s project and be available to explain why recommendations will or won’t work.

To see the full report, go to www.niu.edu/president/ or www.student.niu.edu.