IBHE silences memo details

By Brian Slupski

NIU’s mission statement might be getting butchered, but the ax wielders are enforcing a silence.

The contents of an Illinois Board of Higher Education memo, which critics described as drastically changing NIU’s mission statement, are being withheld under an “information embargo,” said NIU President John La Tourette.

La Tourette received a fax from the IBHE last Monday detailing the changes in the scope of NIU’s mission. At last Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting, La Tourette and others panned the statement, saying it “butchered NIU’s mission statement.”

A mission statement determines what the university should do and can do in terms of academic programs.

Since the Regents meeting La Tourette has refused to reveal any of the details of the statement because of an information embargo he is under from the IBHE.

La Tourette said he has received two statements on mission from the IBHE. The first one he described as being very consistent with NIU’s present statement.

However, the second statement was totally different than the previous communique and gutted NIU’s mission, he said.

At the Regents meeting, Regent David Murphy said the second IBHE statement on mission effectively eliminated NIU’s professional studies program. No other details of the fax are known.

The IBHE statement on mission is part of the Priorities, Quality and Productivity (PQP) initiative. PQP is designed to streamline higher education and better utilize available resources. Critics have said the plan only takes statistical data into account and does not consider program quality and need.

Debra Smitley, IBHE associate director of public affairs, said the statements on mission will be discussed when the IBHE meets as a committee-of-the-whole Oct. 6.

She said it would be inappropriate to discuss the statements prior to the meeting.

Smitley said the PQP initiative was created because of limited future resources for higher education. She said the purpose of PQP is to identify what universities do best through evaluations and set priorities based on those evaluations.

La Tourette said at this point he doesn’t know what the purpose of the PQP initiative is. He said significant savings are rarely generated from academic program cuts.

La Tourette said he fears the initiative may be more of a political process than an educational one.