There is still hope that a student-run credit union could be started at NIU’s Holmes Student Center, but confusion about who should approve it is delaying plans.

The credit union proposal, introduced last spring, is struggling through the planning stages and is not likely to get started in time for the beginning of fall classes.

NIU Finance Profesor Joseph Newman, who was on the committee to investigate the possibility of a credit union, said the credit union needed but did not receive the approval of University Legal Counsel George Shur.

Shur was unavailable for comment and will be off campus at a Harvard University institute until early August.

However, NIU President John La Tourette said that some of Shur’s reservations about a credit union included practical and legal questions about the use of the university name, the possibility of needing Board-of-Regent approval, payment for university space, and possible conflicts with DeKalb banks, secretary Ann Groves said.

Former Student Associaton President Huda Scheidelman said she was notified about these reservations in a June letter from Shur. But she said the students were ready and she felt his questions were answered previously.

Bruce Hawver, one of the students who helped plan the credit union, said he never got the letter.

But fellow planning member Chuck Brobst said he received a second letter from Shur Tuesday and Hawver received the same letter Saturday.

In the letter to Brobst and Hawver, Shur said he was just raising questions (about the credit union) that either the National Credit Union Association or the Illinois Credit Union League would ask, Brobst said.

Brobst said it is unclear which of those organizations would oversee NIU’s credit union.

In Shur’s most recent letter, Hawver said they learned the Board of Regents must approve lease agreements. “The Board of Regents is just the latest group” that was cited as the final word to approve the credit union, Brobst said.

The credit union would be run daily by students, but would be either privately or federally insured and supervised, depending on which credit union organization is involved, Brobst said. NIU faculty also would advise the credit union, he said.

“We were hoping to be in the student center by now. We are still working on it,” Hawver said.

Hawver said he and Brobst will work this fall to get other people involved in the credit union. The credit union committee has not met since the last week of spring classes.

Brobst said he is hopeful that the credit union will get started in some manner soon.