by Roy Taylor, Daily Vidette Reporter

ISU President Thomas Wallace was the only university president who voiced opposition to the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s recommended program cuts at an IBHE meeting Tuesday.

The board met with representatives of the governing boards of the 12 universities.

The chancellors of the four governing bodies of the universities in the state were allowed to speak during the meeting.

But Roderick Groves, chancellor of the Board of Regents, which governs ISU, Northern Illinois and Sangamon State universities, allowed presidents of the three schools to voice their opinions.

The other three chancellors did not give their presidents the same opportunity.

Student Body Vice President David DeRousse said Wallace took a leadership role against the proposed program cuts.

“It is great that the president is taking a leadership role among the other university presidents,” DeRousse said.

“It was obvious that President Wallace disapproves with the way the cuts are being made, he said.

DeRousse said Wallace is the only president that is speaking out against the cuts and he is “saying what the other 11 Illinois institutions wish they could be saying.”

At the IBHE meeting, it was also implied that ISU is the only institution that is vocally expressing its dissatisfaction with the cuts, he said.

“A representative of the IBHE said 11 of 12 Illinois universities are cooperating with the cuts, and they were inferring that the one that is not is ISU,” he said.

“There is not a lot of noise being made at the other universities,” Wallace said, adding it is not fair to assume that they were talking about ISU.

He said he is not sure how the cuts are being addressed at other universities, but there was one NIU law school representative protesting the cuts at the meeting.

Otherwise, there was “not a lot of talk about specific program cuts” at the meeting, he said.

“Perhaps at the November meeting, they will get more specific, he said.

The program cuts for the 12 universities in the state will be decided at the next meeting. That is when “the axe is going to fall,” DeRousse said.

DeRousse said he was “disappointed” that only 6 or 7 ISU students attended Tuesday’s meeting. He is encouraging and expecting many ISU students to attend the next one to protest the proposed cuts, he said.

The next IBHE meeting will be held November 26 at the University of Illinois at Urbana, DeRousse said.