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NIU faculty urge transparency, warn cuts to graduate assistants and staff will harm research and teaching
Summary
Two faculty speakers at the Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees committee meeting pressed university leaders for clearer budget details, asked that graduate assistant and instructor positions be spared and questioned a multi‑year contract with consulting firm EAB.
Dr. Mark Van Wienen, president of NIU’s United Faculty Alliance, and Professor Holly Jones told the university trustees’ finance committee on May 14 that the campus faces a roughly $15 million structural deficit and that the budget process lacks transparency.
They said administrators have not provided enough detail about how cuts will be implemented and urged trustees and university leaders to avoid cutting graduate assistantships, contingent instructors and front‑line staff who assist students. Van Wienen warned that some units have been told to prepare cuts of about 7.5 percent and said faculty and staff feel like “canaries” in a budget “minefield.”
The faculty speakers tied staffing and graduate‑student funding to NIU’s research and instructional missions. Jones said her laboratory’s graduate assistants helped secure roughly $750,000 in grant funding and co‑authored more than 40 peer‑reviewed articles; she said one college proposed $600,000 in cuts to graduate assistantships. Both speakers said losing GA lines would reduce hands‑on training for undergraduates and weaken research output.
Both speakers also questioned the university’s contract with EAB, an external consulting firm. Van Wienen said EAB’s engagement could reach up to $12 million for fiscal years 2024–2028 and asked trustees to explain the value of roughly $2.4 million per year the contract could cost, suggesting that money could instead fund faculty, instructors or graduate assistants. He said faculty and staff currently do not have broad access to the EAB analytics platform and called for greater access and transparency about how data are used in decision making.
Trustees and administrators acknowledged the comments; no formal action was taken during the public‑comment period. The faculty delegation said it would continue to follow budget developments as the administration develops proposals in May and the board considers the internal budget in June.
The statements occurred during the public‑comment portion of the finance committee meeting and were delivered under a five‑ and ten‑minute time limit. Van Wienen identified himself as a professor of English and leader of the United Faculty Alliance; Jones identified herself as a presidential research professor jointly appointed to biological sciences and the Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability and Energy.
