The Student Association can begin working on this year’s goals, as representatives have brought back pertinent information from the Illinois Student Association Summit in Springfield last weekend.

“I learned a lot from what the people had to say,” said SA President Huda Scheidelman. “It’s always interesting to get firsthand information from experts on a subject.”

NIU representatives included Scheidelman, SA Community Affairs Adviser Brian Subatich and SA Senators Rob McCormack and Tanya Smith. Smith recently was appointed the association’s NIU director.

Before attending the summit, Scheidelman said the NIU representatives would focus on two issues—increasing disabled access on campus and minority access to higher education.

Scheidelman said the summit provided a lot of important information that will help to achieve this year’s goals. “The summit informed us of future legislative bills concerning disabled and minority access. This is going to greatly help us to better deal with these issues,” she said.

“From the knowledge base we have acquired, we can really work on the issues that are important to this campus. A lot of the ideas we got out of the summit will be implemented throughout this year,” Scheidelman said.

A major session at the summit, entitled “The Anatomy of a Tuition Freeze,” was intended to formulate a strategy to freeze future tuition hikes at Illinois state colleges and universities, Smith said. A statewide tuition freeze has not occurred since 1976, she said.

The ISA recently finished a two-year study which explores various strategies to freeze tuition. The research was presented to Illinois legislators during the summit, Smith said.

The study is a concise investigation as to why there should be a tuition freeze, she said. “The document had input from various leaders statewide.”

The Illinois legislature passed a mandate in 1977 stating tuition costs cannot exceed one-third of a university’s instructional costs. Since Gov. James Thompson took office in 1976, the cost of tuition has increased every year well beyond the originally mandated “one-third rule,” Smith said.

The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana funds almost 75 percent of its instructional costs through tuition, she said.

“Even though it is currently the 1989-90 school year, the budgeting boards are already working on the 1992 budget,” Smith said. “We need to motivate freshmen students to get involved in the lobbying process so they will have time to stick with it from an early stage.”

A representative from each school attending the conference was provided with a book filled with pertinent articles, statewide resources and copies of upcoming legislative bills, Scheidelman said.

The ISA constantly gathers important information that is compiled into monthly reports sent out to all member schools, she said. The ISA is considering a statewide computer network information system for its member schools. If implemented, the ISA can instantly transmit information as it is received, she said.

“The ISA has been expanding ever since it was created,” Scheidelman said. “It has become a great asset to its member schools through the lobbying power it can bring to the legislature.”

Scheidelman said she feels the summit was able to motivate NIU’s SA representatives to become more active with Senate Bill 0001, which calls for a separate governing board for NIU.

Although the bill died in committee during the last legislative session, Scheidelman said Rep. John Countryman, R-DeKalb, has promised to reintroduce it during next spring’s legislative session. Sen. Patrick Welch, D-Peru, also has said he will reintroduce a separate governing board bill to the Senate.

A separate governing board would replace the Board of Regents, which governs NIU, Illinois State University in Normal and Sangamon State University in Springfield.