A School of Art request for clarification on an administrative report is swimming its way through NIU’s administrative channels.

The material in question is a paragraph concerning the School of Art’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) curriculum within NIU’s 1992 Productivity Report. The report contains a program evaluation of priorities, quality, and productivity which came in response to the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s attempt to streamline state universities.

Concern about the paragraph first was voiced by Professor of Art Gordon Dorn, who feared a misinterpretation of the paragraph’s intended meaning by the IBHE.

“In terms of the way it was written, I could not tell how it was intended,” Dorn said. “At the time, I didn’t know myself how it was intended.”

He said that the paragraph pinpoints NIU’s consideration of consolidating emphasis within the program, not eliminating the program entirely, as one might interpret from its wording.

An elimination of the program would affect more than 800 declared majors, Dorn said.

“Maybe the language came out otherwise, but we were simply informing the IBHE that we are already in the process of review,” said Stanley Madeja, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

“We have not slated any programs to be dropped,” he said. “None whatsoever.”

Dorn said that a revised version of the paragraph has been submitted by the art department to the dean’s office.

“The corrected copy reflects more clearly the intent of the original statement,” Dorn said.

“We will, at the appropriate time, begin the process of clarification,” Madeja said.

However, university officials generally are uncertain as to what will be the appropriate time to deal with the submitted clarification.

“We don’t know when we will get an opportunity as of yet,” Madeja said. “We don’t know exactly how the process with the IBHE will be working yet—there’s a lot of ambiguity in it.”

Ultimately, the submission’s main destination will be the Provost’s Office, Dorn said.

Assistant Provost Lynne Waldeland said that the submission had not reached her office yet.

Waldeland also said that it was not certain yet how the correction would be made, but confirmed that “there’s obviously no thought whatsoever to eliminating the program.”