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The Student News Site of Northern Illinois University

Northern Star
The Student News Site of Northern Illinois University

Northern Star

50 First Dates

By Marcus Leshock | February 19, 2004

"50 First Dates" is your typical Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore film. The humor isn't as gross as your ordinary Sandler film, and it's not as disgustingly cute as a Barrymore film. It's the perfect balance of both. This is what the duo's previous film "The...

Finishing their Journey

By Greg Feltes | February 19, 2004

Documentarian Laura Vazquez cut two years of footage into a 40-minute film, but the real challenge was finding a way to represent the life of an internationally renowned artist without treading into watching- paint-dry territory. Vazquez, an assistant...

Norah Jones: Feels Like Home

By Jessica King | February 19, 2004

Being at the top can be hard. With her debut album "Come Away With Me," Norah Jones sold eight million copies and won eight Grammys. Beating that record won't prove easy. Her 13-track second album "Feels Like Home" doesn't feel fussy like many other artists'...

Gettin’ artsy at the Institute

By Chaz Wilke | February 19, 2004

Valentine's Day for some was an opportunity to spend the day with fellow art lovers on NIU's "Get on the Bus" day trip to the Art Institute and NIU Chicago Gallery. The "Get on the Bus" program has been taking monthly trips for about 10 years. -"We've...

Board investigates initiation

By Aacia Hussain | February 19, 2004

The Greek Life Standards Board is investigating a national sorority, unrecognized by NIU, that has initiated five students, said Chris Juhl, activities adviser for Greek Affairs. Alpha Sigma Omega applied to become a recognized group at NIU but was denied,...

PRISM to honor leaders

By LaShaunna Watkins | February 19, 2004

The Presidential Commission on Sexual Orientation and PRISM are seeking nominations for the Eychaner Award. Margie Cook, director of the University Resources for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center, said the award began in 1995 when...

Retirement funding for university employees to decrease in 2005

By Gerold Shelton | February 19, 2004

The state of Illinois will decrease the amount of funding to the State University Retirement System by 13.8 percent in fiscal year 2005.

SURS will lose more than $41 million because of the influx of $1.4 billion received July 2, 2003, from the sales of $10 billion in bonds last year. The bonds were sold to benefit the state retirement system by paying down liabilities, said Dan Slack, SURS general counsel and associate executive director.

Sale of the bonds will allow the state to make pension contributions for the next four years and reduce the amount of money coming from the General Revenue Fund by $215 million, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced in his state budget address Wednesday.

“It is a nice and welcome infusion of funds into the system,” Slack said.

He said the reduction won’t have a short-term effect, but if SURS is not funded properly, there will be a long-term effect.

“We are saddling our children with problems we should be funding now,” Slack said.

The 13.8 percent decrease in funding reflects a reduced state pension liability, not a reduction in the support system, said Steve Cunningham, NIU associate vice president of Planning and Human Resources.

“Any time there’s an opportunity to pay down liabilities of the pension system, it is a good thing,” Cunningham said. “If the liabilities are less, the state has the opportunity to have money for other issues, like less cutting and pay raises.”

Future cuts in funding may change how the system is structured.

“One thing we can see happening is to run a much less generous program,” Slack said. “It would be tiered by when you joined the public system. This is the risk if the budget isn’t in place.”

Past budget cuts are what got the the SURS system to where it is today, said Larry Sallberg, NIU Annuitants Association treasurer.

“If they put the money in properly in the 1980s, it wouldn’t be this way today,” Sallberg said.

Slack agreed and said, “It would have been funded at 100 percent if funded properly, but now our goal is to have our assets up to 90 percent by FY 2045.”

At least one department on campus has been affected by retirements. The sociology department had a trickle of retirements dating back to 1998, including three full-time faculty members last year, department chair Kay Forest said.

“They realized that after you put in 30 years, and in one case 39 years, unless there is a compelling reason to stay, it is better to join the retirement system,” Forest said. “None of the ones who retired last year left because they thought the ship was sinking; there were new career opportunities that pulled them away.”

While SURS funding may affect future retirees, it had no effect on history professor Elaine Spencer’s decision to retire.

“I had other things in mind. It wasn’t a factor in my decision to retire,” Spencer said.

Opinions spark debate

By Deanna Cabinian | February 19, 2004

About 100 people gathered at the Holmes Student Center’s Diversions Lounge on Wednesday night to discuss the viewpoints of Northern Star columnist Nick Arhos. “We’re not here to play the victim or attack Nick Arhos but to raise awareness about these...

The group effort

By Sam Cholke | February 19, 2004

"If you don't turn out to be a genius, I will never speak to you again," said Stella Adler, played by Tracy Kratz during Saturday night's performance of "The Group!" There were some large shoes to fill for the 18 NIU students and faculty members who performed...

Instant destroyer

By Greg Feltes | February 19, 2004

It's slightly less addictive than cocaine, more insidiously benign than "SpongeBob SquarePants" and will be the end of the civilization as we know it. Its name is AIM (AOL Instant Messenger, but only losers and skanks call it that), and it will destroy...

Hide the children! Chappelle’s Comin’

By Nicholas Alajakis | February 19, 2004

He lit up in “Half Baked,” made racist jokes on his comedy show and now Dave Chappelle, one of America’s hottest comedians, is coming to NIU. As part of his current comedy tour, Chappelle will stop at the Convocation Center on April 15. The show...

Council offers achievement scholarships to black students

By LaShaunna Watkins | February 19, 2004

The NIU Black Alumni Council is offering black students a scholarship award. The Fanny Ruth Patterson Scholarship Award is named in honor of the first black graduate of NIU. Patterson died in 1920 of pulmonary tuberculosis. Michael Pattrick, president...

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