NIU students will probably get summer bus service for the first time since 1984.

The 7-0 decision by the Student Association Mass Transit Board will have summer buses traveling routes similar to the present weekend routes.

The buses will run Monday through Thursday—the only days that summer classes are held, said Mass Transit Executive Director Todd Allen.

Bus service will cost summer school students 45 cents per credit hour, which will pay for two buses a day compared to the 13 buses that run during peak hours now.

However, the summer plan awaits the recommendation of NIU President John La Tourette’s Fee Study Committee, La Tourette himself, and finally, by the Board of Regents in March.

Mass Transit Financial Adviser Rick Schaschwary said the fee should not have much problem getting final approval, since students supported the summer bus service fee in a referendum last summer.

Allen said about 50 people called him last summer about bus service, and even more called Huskie Line, the company that owns and runs the buses.

Summer bus service was cancelled in 1984 because DeKalb could not pay for it.

“Our overall goal is to gear up for year-round bus service like other universities have,” he said.

In other business, board members unanimously approved Mary Heather Hannah as a board member.

annah caught the board’s attention last semester in her plea to take Coors beer advertising off the buses because she said the company had a record of polluting the environment.

Despite Hannah’s criticism, Allen supported the board’s decision.

“That’s not even an issue. Mary Heather, as a fee-paying student, has a right to be to be a mass transit board member like any other student,” he said.

Hannah said her goal as a member was “to see more people have a positive attitude toward the bus system.” She will still need final approval by the SA senate.