Students are caught in the middle over internal Student Association fighting about who has the power to direct the Illinois Student Association referendum date, an SA adviser said.

“I think it is unfortunate that the student body has to be jerked around over something so petty,” said Tom Ellett, Student Political Education and Action Committee adviser.

Ellett said SA Vice President Tanya Smith “feels she is the overseer” of organizing the referendum where students will decide if they want to stay in the ISA, an Illinois student lobbying group.

Each student pays $1 per year to the ISA.

“Tanya does not have any role in the process,” Ellett said. “She thinks she does, but she doesn’t.”

Smith said she has been waiting for 1,250 signatures (5 percent of NIU students) and the official wording for the referendum ballot question before she and Elections Commissioner Alfred Tatum can set a referendum date.

“It is my responsibility to make sure that the SA is acting constitutionally,” Smith said, referring to the signatures and the ballot question.

Ellett said 1,050 signatures have been collected and the 200 signatures needed will be ready by today or Tuesday.

SA President Robert McCormack also said the referendum question already has been approved by the SA Supreme Court, and he displayed the paper signed by former SA Supreme Court Justice Thomas Gary as Sunday’s senate meeting.

If enough signatures are collected by today or Tuesday, the SA Constitution states that the referendum should be held in the next four weeks.

University Programming and Activities Director Michelle Emmett said Presidential Fee Study Committee Chairman Anne Kaplan has been “extraordinarily flexible” in waiting for the referendum results.

The fee study committee will need to approve the fee before being sent to the Board of Regents in March for final approval, Emmett said.

The referendum date was set and cancelled twice last semester because of lack of signatures and low publicity. McCormack said he hopes the new date will be the middle of February.

Smith said getting the referendum organized has been frustrating. “The SA is going to look like a big bunch of unorganized crazies.”