While NIU waits to play its hand at the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s table, a professional union council has decided to join the game.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) Universities Council, made up of the University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) along with local higher education unions, has scheduled an open hearing on Nov. 20 at 1 p.m. in Room 405 of the Holmes Student Center.

Council President Mitch Vogel proposed the hearing to give faculty members, staff and students the opportunity to raise concerns about the IBHE’s Priorities, Quality and Productivity (PQP) initiative.

PQP calls for the elimination or narrowing down of 190 (12 percent) of academic degree programs in public universities to tighten-up statewide higher education.

Vogel’s assistant Barbara Scott said all students and faculty should attend the hearing.

“Everyone is invited to the hearing to give testimony as to how PQP affects them in their particular areas,” she said.

The hearing also gives the council the chance to inform NIU of its Access, Commitment and Excellence report, which criticizes the IBHE for shearing programs instead of administrative costs.

The report claims faculty and staff should be the decision-makers of the final outcome.

“(Faculty and staff) are the educational experts and have the greatest understanding of the university mission and student needs,” the report states. “They must begin the discussion, structure the changes and make the final decisions.”

IFT Universities Council claims the IBHE also should have deviated from program slicing to focus on the rising amount of money used to fund welfare programs for private universities and colleges.

NIU Legal Counsel George Shur said although the council has the right to hold a hearing, he does not support the union’s efforts.

“I remain personally convinced from the record throughout the state that faculty members represented by a union have not done any better than those who are not,” he said. “Unionization is a direct attack on the collegiate system.”

Additionally, NIU leaders will be voicing their concerns about the PQP issue to the IBHE at a Nov. 23 public hearing in Chicago.