The NEIU Board of Trustees met in regular session to discuss the 2019 – 2020 budget on May 23.

Questions were asked at this gathering, but some of them were left unanswered, one of  which was the budget on advertising.

There was talk about the success of the school’s advertisements, both online and physical, and mentions turnouts for many events increasing when properly advertised on websites such as LinkedIn.

Discussion furthered regarding issues with how to increase the effectiveness of the advertisements within the next year’s budget. The department of marketing had questions concerning what the board’s plans were on how their funding should be executed, and what their opinion was on what could be cut.

The board responded that they were unaware of any statistics involving the ratios of success with advertisements. The board also requested that the same statistics be presented as a part of the monthly meeting in the form of charts and graphs in order for them to be able to make knowledgeable decisions in the near future.

Dr. Lopez was appointed head of this issue, along with co chairs: Faculty member Dr. Share and staff member Dr. Maria Ugarte. The goal these three have was to continue the search to find more nominees for the position of Vice President for Finance and Administration.

The reveal of this continued 18 month search, led to the conclusion that finding a professional must adhere to the policy of “inclusion and diversity” and that such policy would be taking priority in this search as stated by our President, Gloria J. Gibson.

One of the temporary solutions that President Gibson provided was emailed to all students, and proposed once more at this meeting, to outsource to another financial firm to temporarily manage the school’s funding. NEIU currently has less money for the budget than last year.

According to online records available to all students in PDF format off the school’s website, the state has cut another 4.2% off our budget going into this year. That equates to a grand total of 1,430,192 dollars lost this year.

That equates to a g rand total o f 1,430,192 dollars lost this year. As a total, NEIU has lost 8.6% of its total revenue starting this year. This information was found in the president’s report to the Board of Trustees on NEIU’s website and the information is available to any and all students who wish to confirm these findings.

Reasons as to why the state is cutting our funding is in relation the Illinois budget crisis, which reduced school funding initiatives state-wide, as well as a large increase of Illinois college applicants choosing to go to colleges out of the state.

The president has sent emails encouraging students to go connect with state legislators to make them aware of the importance of funding our school and how it can impact such a large number of students.

The overall message she provided in the email is that the quality of life at NEIU would improve in areas such as preserving buildings and infrastructure, funding the facilities and creating more job opportunities for professors and students alike.