DeKALB — The Student Government Association received public comment regarding the state of the Neptune North residence hall for their final meeting of the semester on Friday.

NEPTUNE NORTH COMPLAINTS

Payton Shields, a sophomore design and technology major, complained about the state of Neptune Hall, noting the flooding of showers, soap shortages, wasp nests on the girls’ dorm window and lack of air conditioning during hot weather.

“Our flat showers flood, like all of them,” Shields said. “Our toilets back up with sewage. We have to wait a day or hours for them to go back down.”

She attested to the existence of pests which made opening the windows dangerous.

“We have wasp nests on the entire girls’ side windows and on the corners. For example, my friend had two wasps in her window so she couldn’t open her window,” Shields said. “That’s a problem because we don’t have A/C in Neptune North. There’s no air circulation and it was 90 degrees that day.”

Neptune East has air conditioning units, which neither Neptune North nor West have.

Shields said the slow response on the part of NIU maintenance caused delays in fixing the issues.

“Even if we try to bring a work order, it’s either getting to it days later, weeks later, and sometimes the work order form is just not available – the link doesn’t work or the work request office is only open at a certain time,” Shields said.

Shields presented four demands to the senate.

Janitors must clean the showers at least once a week, work requests must get completed within 24 hours of the request being made, infestations of wasps, roaches and bedbugs are dealt with and the washers and driers are refurbished.

Shields then claimed there is black mold in the showers. 

“We have black mold in our showers,” she said.

Shields then said she would demand a cut in room and board fees due to the conditions.

“Until that happens, me and my friend are demanding a 35% refund on our room and board because why would we pay to live in those conditions,” Shields said.

APPROVAL OF BUDGET

SGA passed a resolution approving their budget for fiscal year 2027. The current amount promised is $121,810.

“This number is subject to change as all funding for orgs, including SGA, is based on student activity fees. Depending on what our actual enrollment for the fall of 2026, it depends on how much money we actually get allocated to us,” Senate Speaker Nathan Gonzalez said.

The money is distributed between all SGA recognized student organizations who qualify for funding.

The resolution passed unanimously in a 9-0 vote.

The SGA will resume as the 58th session on Aug. 21.