Full-time students will be charged $75 by the university as part of a new campus improvement fee.

Effective in the spring, students will be charged $6.25 per credit hour to maintain the physical aspects of the university, including repairs made to classrooms, roof tops and other infrastructure repairs. The fee is capped at 12 credit hours.

The Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee of the Board of Trustees, which approved the fee Thursday, expressed regret for the new fee. Trustee Barbara Giorgi Vella said she was disheartened by the whole thing.

“It’s sad that we have to do this,” Vella said. “But we can’t provide unsafe places for our students to learn.”

Eddie Williams, executive vice president of Finance and Facilities and chief of operations, said at the meeting NIU was to receive $1.3 million from the state as part of a permanent improvement line this fiscal year. However, because the Illinois Constitution can only allow balanced budgets to be passed, Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed $1.4 billion from it, including the funding to NIU.

“We have resisted, we have tried to keep this down,” Williams said. “But we have to do this. The deferred maintenance is piling up on us.”

NIU President John Peters also expressed his regrets for the fee. He said that because of it, the state will “take it as a sign that they don’t need to fund it anymore.”

Williams said only two of Illinois’ 12 public universities have not passed campus improvement fees, one being Chicago State University.

Some universities have charged up to $260 for campus improvement. Williams explained why NIU opted to not go for a higher fee even though the university needs it.

“We’re trying to keep everything affordable. We’re trying to put the least amount of burden on our students,” Williams said, adding the fee would replace the funding from the state.

Some students agree with the fee. Shawn Geegan, junior biology major, said the reason for the fee was good because “we can’t depend on the state to give us money for it.”

Phoebe Blaustein, senior math education major, also expressed similar sentiments.

“I feel that we can all contribute this small amount of money to greatly improve our school,” Blaustein said. “But I believe the student body should be consulted in how the money is spent.”

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