Students enrolling at NIU for the fall semester will be able to sign up for four new alcohol-free residence hall floors.

Jack Felver, associate director of student housing, said the floor was made available because an interest was expressed by some students for a floor of that type. It is designed for students who want support in living an alcohol-free lifestyle, he said.

The four floors will include two coed floors, one on 5-D in Stevenson North and one on 5-A in Lincoln Hall. There also will be one female floor on 1-Odd Neptune North and one male floor on 7-A Grant South, Felver said. The floors are “C” visitation, which means members of the opposite sex can be on the floor at all times, he said.

The difference between the alcohol-free lifestyle floors and residence halls that prohibit alcohol is that alcohol is prohibited on the alcohol-free floor even if residents are 21 years old or above, NIU Student Housing Director Don Buckner said. On other floors, students who are 21 or older are allowed to have alcoholic beverages in the privacy of their rooms, he said.

No other alcohol-free floors exist at any other Illinois college, Buckner said.

Felver said incoming freshmen will have to be informed of the new floor in a special note because the housing letter sent to all incoming freshmen is written over a year in advance. The new floor is not currently listed among the floor options available in the letter, he said.

The new student letter for those enrolling in fall 1990 will be written this June, he said.

When a new lifestyle floor is added, another floor must be eliminated to accommodate the new floor, Felver said. However, it sometimes is not possible to supply everyone’s request for every different kind of floor.

It also is not always possible to create additional special lifestyle floors because they begin to infringe on the number of floors which must be available for freshmen and transfers, Felver said. There are 148 total residence hall floors, he said.

Men can choose between 20 different floor options, and women have a choice of 21 different floor options, the currently enrolled student information letter stated.

On-campus students who wish to sign up for the alcohol-free floors or for any of the other floors must sign a contract between today and April 19. On-campus students who fail to sign up “are no longer guaranteed priority over new student applications,” according to the application procedures sent to all current dorm residents.

Current off-campus students who wish to return to the residence halls must pick up housing information beginning March 27 and must pick up and complete a housing application between April 10 and April 19, the application states.

Felver said that new students are given their floor choice last because the university wants to accommodate currently enrolled students. New students could be placed in temporary housing in some floor lounges if there are not enough places for them in the residence halls, he said.