Although more than 300 people signed petitions demanding a tuition freeze, Day of Action IV was not as effective as most hoped it would be.

Student Association President Huda Scheidelman said DOA IV “could have been better,” but student apathy and a lack of SA senate support hurt the day’s effectiveness.

“A lot of senators were told about this and only five showed up,” Scheidelman said. “All we needed was manpower and we didn’t get it from either the SA or the students.”

DOA, designed as a mass student protest against tuition increases, was not well publicized. The event was also hurt by Jennifer Saladino’s resignation. Last week, Saladino gave up the helms of the Student Political Education and Action Committee. SPEAC members had little time to regroup and organize the event.

“We started from scratch and I don’t think we could have done much better in the time we had,” Scheidelman said.

SA Senator Amanda Rutter said “I think we can improve this next year by having a 50-foot Slip ‘n’ Slide going across campus.”

NIU Sophomore Sheila Keenan said the way the DOA is run is not effective. “They’re trying to do something that involves a long process in one day. This isn’t the best way of going about doing this.”

NIU Senior Dan Morris said the tuition issue is very important and should be addressed by more students.

“The State of Illinois is way down on the list for allocation of money for education when we should be number one,” Morris said.

NIU Junior Glen Szczypka agreed that DOA IV was ineffective. “They’ve tried all this petition stuff that doesn’t work. The bottom line is students don’t vote and so politicians don’t listen to them.

“I would rather see people blocking off highways (like in 1988),” Szcypka said. “That would at least scare the politicians.”

NIU Junior Ray Rehayem said DOA “looked just like another spring day in the MLK mall.”

Some students did not even know Wednesday was the Day of Action. “What Day of Action?” asked NIU Junior Jim Mack.

SA Sen. Jordan Kagan said students need to take action to keep tuition from going up and criticized students for not helping the SA in DOA IV.

“We can’t do this alone,” Kagan said. “Do you expect tuition to stay down if you don’t act?”

He said Illinois is 42nd in the amount of money allocated for education funds. “That’s disgusting.”

Scheidelman said that federal and state finacial aid for students is decreasing while tuition continues to increase, creating a “dangerous” situation for future students.