The Northern Star Editorial Board finds the outcome of the NIU Board of Trustees vs Misty Haji-Sheikh case to be costly and unnecessarily difficult when compared to a lawsuit filed by Sid Kincaid in 2016.Sid Kincaid, former Student Association senator,...
The Northern Star Editorial Board applauds the decision made by the U.S. House of Representatives to reject a proposal for educational funding made by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.On March 21, DeVos and President Donald Trump proposed the most recent...
The Northern Star Editorial Board considers NIU’s recent mismanagement of equipment a poor reflection on the administration as a whole, especially during a time when it’s requesting additional state funding. It is imperative the administration takes...
The Northern Star Editorial Board stands beside the brave individuals who spoke up against gun violence and agrees student participation in walkouts is essential in continuing the dialogue. We stand with students who choose to participate in the national...
Above is a rendering of the Huskies Den after the proposed renovations have been completed. The renovation would include a staircase to the Black Hawk Cafe and a sports grill.
The Northern Star Editorial Board would like to commend the Board of Trustees on the preliminary steps it has taken in the search for NIU’s next president; we also ask the Trustees take these steps even further and learn from past mistakes.In the past,...
President Doug Baker’s performance in the infancy of his tenure at NIU set the university back to a point in which it is struggling to return.
As the end of the spring 2017 semester approaches, the Board of Trustees is preparing for its annual review of Baker. It is important to remember what has come to light of Baker’s early performance as president.
Referenced in a Dec. 22 Baker Report, “complaints regarding procurement practices, employment decisions, and contractual arrangements that occurred in 2013-2014” have put a cloud of suspicion upon Baker and his administration.
Although Baker said the allegations had been investigated and “strategic initiatives” were implemented to address these issues, the extent of these practices and actions are still being discovered today. This continued lack of clarity to faculty and students who deserve to know what is going on at their university is unacceptable.
NIU has paid $189,145.46 to the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC as representation for Baker in an Office of Executive Inspector General investigation, according to payment documents received on April 27 through a FOIA request submitted to NIU by the Northern Star.
“Whenever there is an investigation by an agency — in this case, it’s not a legal suit, but it’s an agency looking at internal policy kinds of issues — it’s common practice or best practice that outside counsel be used for [the] president,” Baker said, according to a May 1 Northern Star article. “I’m sorry we’re having to do it, but that’s part of the indemnification clause that a president of a university has.”
However, the OEIG investigation is not the only instance for which Baker has required legal counsel. There is an ongoing lawsuit against Baker, the university and one of Baker’s controversial hires, Nancy Suttenfield, former interim chief financial officer, filed by former NIU Controller Keith Jackson.
The suit alleges Suttenfield hired a forensic audit firm to “dredge for evidence of wrongdoing” by Jackson and other employees that she and Baker wanted to terminate.
Baker is paid an annual base salary of $450,000, according to his contract received on April 5 through a FOIA request submitted to NIU by the Northern Star. In comparison, Illinois State University, which had an enrollment of only about 2,000 more students than NIU in 2016, pays its president, Larry Dietz, an annual base salary of $350,004, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education website.
While the Northern Star Editorial Board understands complaints are filed, rumors spread and investigations unfold at such a large state university, the amount of money spent on Baker — from legal fees, to travel expenses, to his large salary — is too much when keeping in mind the lack of a state budget for the past three years.
To account for part of a $35 million budgetary gap for Fiscal Year 2018 that may result from the Illinois budget impasse, a portion of university employees will be losing their jobs, according to an April 28 Baker Report. As these employees are laid off, it stands Baker will continue collecting a healthy paycheck.
Baker opened up the annual presidential review conducted by the Board of Trustees to faculty, staff and students in an April 17 Baker Report. The Editorial Board urges the participants of this review to pay close attention to what Baker has cost the university in money and peace of mind.
With a voter turnout of 3.24 percent in the Student Association Senate elections, a major change has to be made in the attitude of students and SA election promotion to increase voter turnout.Only 653 students out of 20,130 students enrolled at NIU voted...
Journalists need the support of readers, and everyone needs to support freedom of expression — that’s a lesson everyone must be reminded of in light of the Wednesday attack on the “Charlie Hebdo” satirical magazine.The massacre was insane —...
