NIU students might pay at least $55 more in fees next year.

President John La Tourette’s Fee Study Committee will present the fee recommendations to La Tourette, who will use the information to make recommendations to the board in March. The board will make the final decisions.

The fee study committee unanimously approved all student fee requests except an increase in The Northern Star Fee from $1.92 to $3.30 total for full-time students.

The committee decided to recommend keeping the Star fee at $1.92 (.08 per credit hour) after a motion by Student Association President Huda Scheidelman to eliminate the fee was defeated 6-3.

“I have to maintain the point that this avenue of funding for The Northern Star is unacceptable to the student government,” Scheidelman said.

“Huda speaks of the SA as a whole, but it (opposition to the fee) is not a consensus,” said John Fallon, committee member and SA Senate speaker. He quoted a senate referendum that showed students to be 51 to 49 percent against the fee.

A motion to leave the Star fee at 8 cents per credit hour was almost defeated until Scheidelman changed her vote from an abstention to “yes.”

Student fee increase recommendations for next year for full-time students approved by the committee that increased from about $477 to $532, include:

Bus Fee from $58.08 to $71.52

Health Services Fee from $83.52 to $101.52

Holmes Student Center Fee from $127.68 to $147.84

Athletic Fee from $95.52 to $99.36

Other fees approved by the committee which did not request increases per year for full-time students (12 credit hours) included:

Undergraduate Activity Fee of $40.32

Law Student Activity Fee of $28.80

Graduate Student Activity Fee of $16.32

Huskie Stadium/Chick Evans Field House Fee of $45.84

Student Recreation Fee of $45.60

Grant-in-Aid Fee of $4.56

Graduate Student Colloquium Fee of $39.12

Law School Fee of $28.08

Undergraduate Student-to-Student Grant Fee of $6

Illinois Student Association Fee of $1