Students will decide in a referendum this spring whether NIU will continue its Illinois Student Association membership.

SA Vice President Tanya Smith said an SA investigation and recommendation will precede the vote. “Ultimately, it is up to the students,” Smith said.

SA President Rob McCormack and Smith questioned the ISA’s effectiveness because of a recent conflict over the appointment of NIU’s representative for the Joint Committee on College Tuition. The committee will recommend tuition policies to the Illinois General Assembly in January.

McCormack and Smith said the procedures to select NIU’s representative, Brian Hopkins of Sangamon State University, were unclear.

Smith also questioned the ISA’s willingness to communicate with NIU and its ability to spend money effectively. NIU gives the ISA $22,000 annually.

“The organization has been around for a while and it is not going anywhere,” she said.

However, she said the SA would not have an official position toward the ISA until after the investigation.

Illinois State University in Normal also doubted the ISA’s effectiveness and decided in a referendum last spring not to continue membership.

The ISU student government was concerned how the ISA spent the money it received and its credibility as an organization, according to an article in ISU’s newspaper, The Daily Vidette.

ISA Executive Director David Starett said the ISU government wanted ISA membership instead of allowing the student body membership.

“The ISA is set up to represent students, not student politicians,” Starett said.

The University of Illinois in Champaign aired similar complaints about the ISA’s effectiveness in 1988, but since then relations have improved, said U of I ISA Director Todd Drafall.

“I was an ISA-basher myself,” Drafall said of the 1988 ISA criticisms. “But we are in a different era now.”

The referendum is required by the ISA for NIU to become a full-fledged member. NIU is now a provisional member.

Smith said the exact date of the referendum has not been determined.