The Illinois Student Association gave NIU ample time to find a candidate for a statewide tuition committee despite objections from NIU Student Association officials, ISA board members said.

ISA Chairman Susan Hall said the ISA discussed the need for candidates for the Joint Committee on College Tuition in a June 20 meeting. She said Tanya Smith, SA vice president and ISA member, was at the meeting.

However, Hall said, when the time came to vote for committee members Aug. 10, Smith did not present candidates or a recommendation from NIU.

Instead, the ISA executive board recommended Brian Hopkins of Sangamon State University in Springfield to represent NIU, SSU and Illinois State University in Normal on the tuition committee. Hopkins was approved during the meeting.

The tuition committee is made of five members who represent schools in the ISA. The committee will make tuition policy recommendations to the Illinois General Assembly in January.

Smith said the procedure on the selection process was unclear and NIU was not consulted about Hopkin’s recommendation.

all agreed the process was informal and needs improvement if a similar situation occurs. “This is the first time we’ve done something like this,” Hall said.

She said NIU was the only school at the meeting that did not support a candidate whereas her school, Souhtern Illinois University in Carbondale, discussed a candidate all summer, she said. “I as a director took it upon myself to start discussion,” Hall said.

Todd Drafall, an ISA member from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, said he was very involved in the selection process for U. of I. and other schools.

He said he was surprised to hear Smith’s complaint about having too little time to find a candidate. NIU knew about the committee since it began, he said.

“There is a problem here with communication (between NIU and ISA),” Drafall said.

Still, SA President Robert McCormack said that he was unaware that candidates were being chosen at other schools. “If we are paying $22,000 a year to the ISA, there should be communication between all groups.”