To anyone without a driver's license, a fresh sheet of snow and a car is like a blanket of paradise.

Among Santa Claus and other winter icons, snow means sledding, which means flying down steep hills at dangerously high speeds on flimsy pieces of plastic that most likely were forged in your basement 15 minutes prior to walking to the sledding hill.

Oh, sledding! Just the word alone conjures up images of 20 mph face-plants into piles of fresh powder and fingers that froze up and went numb no matter how many pairs of gloves we wore.

Or that two-man sled Dad bought 20 years ago that grew brittle over time and literally exploded into tiny shards under the crushing weight of our young bodies.

Sledding is fun and dangerous. You might fly down the hill and you also might flip out and break an arm. In a way, sledding is like an extreme sport — for kids.

For anyone over 12, sledding becomes less a sport and more a deathtrap — the quicker the speed, the higher the risk of injury.

And as I — and my poor forehead — can attest to, kids are virtually indestructible. They are built for sledding much like a jockey is built to ride a horse. I've seen kids and friends flip out, flip over, fall off, get run over, jump off, run off, surf down and tumble over without a scratch or bruise.

The exception, of course, was my friend who flipped over and broke his arm. In that case, he told his parents (and a skeptical doctor) that he tripped down the stairs. No harm came of the fib other than a cast, which at 12 is more like a trophy or a Purple Heart medal than an awkward hunk of plaster.

Some sleds, like a standard inner tube, can shield the user from broken limbs, bleeding cuts and Purple Heart medals.

An inner tube is the perfect shock absorber and it takes bumps and bruises like no other sled, barring the occasional puncturing shard of glass.

But depending on the size of the rider, a snowbound inner tube can slow to a snail's crawl, although the air pressure gives the rider's rear end an uncanny, almost heavenly sledding experience.

For the speed junkies, freaks who live and die by the blur of uncertainty, salvation lies in the weakest, flimsiest, slickest piece of plastic on the market.

Like a raincoat or a glorified sheet of wax paper. Well, not that extreme, but any 13-year-old speed jockey knows what I'm talking about.

And I'm talking about snow, winter fun and flying down a silver mountain with nothing but steel nerve and a shoddy piece of plastic that you're proud to call a sled.

It seems higher education’s budget problems will stick around for a few more years, said Kathy Buettner, NIU’s associate vice president and executive director for state and federal relations.

Buettner gave an overview of NIU’s budget status at Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting.

“Federal monies have expanded dramatically, and that’s good,” she said. “The bottom line is our base revenue for the state continues to struggle. It’s still down.”

Buettner said that last year, the budget was not figured out until April, when the governor normally would have it by April.

“I don’t think they will wait that long this year, but it may not happen and [Gov. Rod Blagojevich] may try to get an extension from the General Assembly until March,” Buettner said.

NIU is not alone in the budget crisis.

“I don’t believe any other of the universities have unveiled their formal policies yet,” Buettner said.

Each university determines how it will handle the cuts, such as cutting courses or office supplies. Buettner said all state universities have tried to be as efficient as possible.

“At this point, if we have another cut, it will cut into the quality of instruction,” Buettner said. “There’s nothing left to cut but people.”

However, Buettner said faculty cuts probably are not under serious consideration at this point.

The budget will be more certain by Dec. 31, when the government will see the impact of sales tax.

“I don’t think anyone can make a decision now, it’s too early to tell,” Buettner said.

Patricia Henry, faculty representative to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, said the PQP (Programs, Quality, Productivity) process still is being discussed. Many NIU faculty members are opposed to the process.

“PQP is still around, but the IBHE said nothing in terms of endorsing it,” Henry said.

Buettner said she believes faculty members are being as productive as possible.

“They are educating several thousand more students on $20 or $30 million less - that’s productivity,” Buettner said.

Students may feel the budget crunch in class size and availability.

“Everyone needs to focus on what the state revenue situation is, and pay attention to reports that come out on state revenue,” Buettner said.

Also during the meeting, the Academic Affairs committee proposed the idea of a different grading system to the faculty senate. The committee suggested changing the current system so it allows students to be more differentiated based on performance.

Although the committee was unsure on what type of system, some suggested a system based on grades of A, A-B, B and B-C. This is the same system currently used by the University of Wisconsin.

The Faculty Senate asked the committee to come back in January with more information about the new system.