The Impact of Private Support As a public institution, Northern Illinois University is dedicated to providing a quality, affordable education to all qualified students. The university is home to dozens of nationally-recognized programs, including: Public Administration - ranked fourth in the nation for the training of city managers. One-third of all Illinois city and county administrators are graduates of NIU's public administration program. Education - The College of Education has one of the 10 largest teacher preparation programs in the nation. More than 25,000 NIU grads are teaching in Illinois schools. Management Information Systems - Northern's program recently was rated 19th in the nation on Computerworld magazine's list of the Top 25 Techno MBA's. Law - the school is a national leader in preparing students for careers in public interest law. Accountancy - ranked among the top 10 in the nation for the last three years by the CPA Review. Computer Science - recognized as one of the best in the country for mainframe computing. More than 150 companies use NIU interns from the program. Anthropology - faculty in the department are consistently earning international recognition for their cutting-edge research and discoveries. And that's only to name a few. Fifty years ago, the university primarily relied on state support to sustain educational quality. Today, however, that support has declined to less than 39 percent of NIU's budget. Committed to keeping tuition and fees affordable, Northern now looks to private donors for the support needed to maintain Northern's excellence. At the same time that public support has declined, higher education costs have risen - dramatically. The need for new instructional technologies tells part of that story. So does increased utility costs and the need for new students services, particularly financial aid. The list goes on and on, but there are few new sources of revenue to meet those challenges. The only area of support with the potential for long-term growth is private support. When you give to the NIU Foundation, your gift is distributed to the college, department, or program of your choice. In this way, you help to ensure that Northern continues to maintain its position as a first-class environment for teaching and learning. Tomorrow's leaders in virtually every walk of life are today's students at Northern Illinois University, and their education will continue to flourish thanks to the generous private support given by Northern's friends and alumni.