ands should be put together for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and its dean James Norris. The college was brave enough to acknowledge the possibility of faculty members instructing more classes

The issues of class instruction and faculty workloads were topics of discussion at the LA&S annual retreat held earlier this month. It’s encouraging to finally see faculty members and students turning to the same page in the textbook of quality state higher education.

Norris and his department chairs have realized that class loads for professors will have to increase. Illinois higher education is in a time of crisis, and it’s a logical realization that students need their professors to instruct rather than doing grant-attracting research.

It’s important to the tuition-paying students of NIU that they receive a quality education. It is the business of NIU to provide that education to a satisfactory level.

While there remain many problems to tackle in the reformation of higher education at NIU, LA&S has taken a giant step toward success by acknowledging that the faculty must be an active player in today’s game of high stakes education.

The burden of reforming higher education should not be that of the state bureaucracy, but should instead be carried by the students and educators of higher education.