An NIU professor concerned by the university’s Business and Industry Services project went to the Faculty Senate for some answers.

Technology instructor Earl E. Hansen wants to know whether the senate knew if the project existed.

“Does the right hand know what the left is doing?” he asked.

Hansen said he was getting calls from people asking him why certain courses were being taught off-campus and why NIU professors weren’t teaching them.

Some of the non-credit seminars offered by B&IS fall under the College of Engineering, the College of Continuing Education and the School of Business, he said.

B&IS staff should have checked NIU’s fall and spring catalogs for possible duplication and consulted area community colleges for their course schedules, Hansen said. “It doesn’t take a genius to do that.”

Hansen said community colleges should be angry and the NIU faculty should have been consulted for its expertise. “I don’t disagree with the mission of this organization,” Hansen said.

However, he asked, “What role, if any, should the faculty play in this? The faculty as a whole should decide.”

Hansen also was shocked by the B&IS salaries. “I was flabbergasted,” he said. “There’s a heck of a lot of faculty on this campus that would kill for the low end of those (salaries).”