A student was stopped Tuesday from asking specific questions about NIU housing conditions because all of the director candidates would not be able to answer the questions.

NIU student Bob Betts was disappointed and shocked that he was told he couldn’t ask John Felver questions about specific incidents.

Felver was on hand at an open student meeting because he is a candidate for Student Housing Services director.

Shelly Synovic, president of the Residence Hall Association, asked students to “keep the questions in the realm of what can be asked of all candidates.”

“After an entire year of problems (on the floor) he (Felver) said he just found out about it yesterday,” Betts said. He lives on floor 6-B in Stevenson Towers South.

About 16 students attended the meeting in which Felver spoke of his past experience and future goals if appointed director. There are five director candidates.

When Felver opened the meeting to questioning, Betts asked why student housing officials weren’t checking the floor after $875 was billed in damage.

“I will be working to see what’s going on,” Felver answered, claiming he had just found out about the problem Monday.

Betts and two other students concerned about this problem left the meeting after Synovic’s statement.

Afterward, Betts said he believes someone should “come door-to-door and see where the concerns are.” He said there have been problems with holes in the walls, prank calls, food thrown on the floor and things thrown at his door and the doors of the resident assistant and others living there.

He said he’s been targeted because others on the floor know he speaks out against the floor damage.

Betts is the moderator of a forum of four or five students who live on the floor that are concerned with this problem, he said.

At a floor meeting, concerned students were told their ideas, such as kicking damage-causing students off the floor, would be considered. They were also told that someone caught damaging the floor would be punished, Betts said.

“I don’t mind” complaining for the floor, Betts said. He added he doesn’t know what to do about this problem, if he “can’t go to (his) superior to get the problems solved.”

Felver also was asked about his goals. He said he planned to focus his attention on three areas: filling housing positions, continuing housing programs and “attacking the physical condition of the buildings.”

Felver said a housing director must “wear a lot of different hats,” be “student-orientated,” be a “businessman,” “relate to the faculty aspects of the university,” be “tremendously organized,” be able to “find priorities” and have “a lot of responsibility.”

Felver is the associate director of the Office of Student Housing Services at NIU and has worked at NIU in different housing positions since 1966.