Students who want to smoke in the library might cost NIU $7,000, but some feel the money would be better spent restoring the facility’s learning materials.

Student Association President Huda Scheidelman said all students pay to use Founders Memorial Library and should not be excluded because they smoke.

She said many students have refused to go to the library since the non-smoking policy took effect July 1, 1988.

Scheidelman said the cost seems “unreasonable” because library resources have declined significantly in the past five years.

“My primary concern is to restore library resources,” Scheidelman said. “It has been the academic materials that have severely suffered.”

“I would support the immediate installation of a smoking division, but there is no money,” Scheidelman said.

Scheidelman met with Library Director Steve Marquardt to tell him she thinks the current situation discriminates against smokers.

Marquardt said he is not prepared to support any smoking additions at this time because of the library’s deteriorating resources.

“When the remodeling of the library takes place, then there might be room for a smoking-area because the current state does inconvenience smokers,” Marquardt said.

“I don’t think this should have anything to do with the non-smoking trend. It is what is best for the students and what they deserve that are my concerns,” Scheidelman said.

Scheidelman said she wants to add a smoking lounge to library expansion plans slated for the next five years.

She said the $7,000 cost seems large because the only renovation needed would be ventilating the basement to prevent smoke from drifting up the escalators. Similar remodeling in the Holmes Student Center would only cost $950.

The $7,000 would come from both state and university repair funds, Scheidelman said.