After being out of commission for about eight months, the Campus Message Board is working again.

Sandy Simon, University Programming and Activities office manager, said the sign malfunctioned during a January snowstorm.

She said the repair delay occurred because the contract with White Way Signs, a Chicago-based company that constructs and repairs NIU’s computerized signs, expired a few days before the sign stopped working.

UP&A could not afford to repair the sign and had to wait for a new contract with White Way Signs to be negotiated, she said.

Whenever the sign breaks down, the programming keyboard “locks up,” Simon said. Both the sign and the keyboard needed to be repaired and reprogrammed, she said.

Simon said the sign is “extremely touchy” and has broken down about seven or eight times since it was erected in 1984. Extreme weather conditions and nearby road construction most often cause the sign to malfunction, she said.

The sign, which displays the time, temperature and NIU messages, is located west of Annie Glidden Road, next to the Student Recreation Center’s parking lot.

Don Urech, executive vice president of The First National Bank of DeKalb, said the bank paid the sign’s original $40,000 price tag. In return, the bank was allowed to run their commercials on the sign for 10 years, Urech said.

The bank owned the sign until 1989, when it was donated to NIU.

Simon said a student “calendar editor” programs the sign.

Simon “encourages all departments to utilize the service.” There is no fee for the service, but request forms must be filled out, she said.

There are a few restrictions, however. According to the Message Board Priority System, “commercial advertisements will not be placed on the message board, with the exception of the sponsor” and “messages advocating political, religious or partisan positions will not be placed on the board.”

Furthermore, “all messages must conform to appropriate standards of decency in language and subject matter, and all requests for entering messages must be approved by a responsible official or faculty adviser of the requesting organization.”

The sign is reprogrammed every Monday, Simon said.