Tag: Illinois General Assembly
NIU President Doug Baker sent this message today to members of the university community. In the closing hours of the fiscal year, we received some very positive news to report. The governor signed into law a bill that provides higher education with badly needed financial support. For NIU it includes: $48.3 million in operating funds...
NIU President Doug Baker sent this message today to members of the university community. Mike Mann, NIU’s director of State Relations, and I were in Springfield earlier this week working with legislative leaders and the governor’s office. It’s clear that both the legislative and executive branch members understand the extreme budget challenges facing higher education...
NIU’s Student Association will sponsor a trip to Springfield Wednesday, April 13, for a full day of student activism regarding MAP grants and the state budget. The bus will depart the east side of the Holmes Student Center at 6:30 a.m. Events begin at 10 a.m. with a pump-up rally at the University of Illinois...
Students are invited at to the New Hall Swing Space at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, for free pizza and the chance to meet Illinois State Rep. Bob Pritchard. A member of the Illinois General Assembly for 13 years, Pritchard has sat on many committees, including Higher Education and Elementary & Secondary Education Appropriation. The...
NIU can survive through the fall semester without a resolution of the Springfield gridlock that has caused an eight-month state budget impasse, NIU President Doug Baker told a town hall meeting audience Tuesday. But Baker doubts the “epic battle” between the governor and the legislature will last that long. “They’re locked in this, and we’re...
Leaders from education, social services, business and others will join together Thursday to call upon state legislators to resolve the ongoing budget stalemate. The event, a Unity Rally for a State Budget, will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, at the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center, 231 N. Annie Glidden Road in DeKalb....
The NIU Board of Trustees plans to vote on a resolution at its meeting Thursday, calling upon the state’s leaders to resolve the ongoing budget crisis. The resolution points out that the lack of a state budget creates an “unsustainable financial environment which makes it nearly impossible for the university to plan for the future.”...
NIU President Doug Baker emailed the campus today on the budget impasse in Springfield. Dear NIU faculty and staff, I’m sure you have seen the media coverage of a judge’s ruling against Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger’s plan to continue to pay state employees while the governor and the legislature attempt to break the budget...
Dear NIU faculty, staff and annuitants, As many of you know, last Friday the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the sweeping pension legislation approved by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law in December 2013 is unconstitutional. Specifically, Public Act 98-599 violates the pension protection clause of the Illinois Constitution by reducing annual...
Students from NIU and colleges and universities across Illinois are encouraged to join Gov. Pat Quinn for a “MAP Matters Day” rally Wednesday, April 30, in Springfield. Quinn will stand up during a 12:30 p.m. gathering in the rotunda of the Illinois State Capitol to push lawmakers to double MAP grant funding. The governor visited...
News from Springfield … The University of Illinois Institute for Government and Public Affairs has released the result of its study, the Fiscal Futures Project. Key findings were that while the changes to four out of the five Illinois state-funded pension systems will eliminate their unfunded liability over the next 25 years, Illinois’ deficit will...
The fall veto session of the Illinois General Assembly is under way and, with it, many pending issues that will have a critical impact on NIU, public higher education in Illinois and the overall management of the state. Today I have been meeting with legislators and Gov. Pat Quinn to advocate for higher education funding...