Student Association President Huda Scheidelman should step down from NIU President John La Tourette’s Fee Study Committee.

Scheidelman accepted her position on the committee before her class schedule was completed. Since its completion, Scheidelman has a class the same time the board meets.

The meeting time was set up with the committee members’ suggestions, and it is not feasible to change the meeting times for one member.

Scheidelman said she “will not miss classes for these meetings,” and she should not. Students are at NIU to learn.

However, Scheidelman’s analysis that missing the meetings will not affect her decision-making capacity is a laughable excuse at best. Keeping “abreast of the issues” through any means is no substitute for participating in the committee’s discussions.

Scheidelman is one of five students on the committee. There should not be a problem with finding a replacement for her. The only problem would be catching the replacement up with the materials from the previous meetings.

Likewise, there are three other SA members on the committee, providing a more than ample representation.

Now, though, we have a committee member that simply can’t attend the meetings. Scheidelman knew in January she had a conflict with the meeting times, and should have resigned her post then before in-depth fee discussions began.

But she didn’t, and students have to deal with it now.