NIU will become the second university to have a refundable $1 fee supporting the Illinois Student Association if the Board of Regents passes the fee at Thursday’s Regents meeting in Springfield.

ISA Executive Director Dave Starrett said the University of Illinois at Chicago is the only school where the $1 fee is currently in effect.

Starrett said the ISA is attempting to establish a $1 refundable fee at all Illinois state universities, establishing a state-wide standard.

The establishment of a standard fee would better enable the ISA to treat each university fairly, since UIC and NIU would be the only two universities supporting the fund through this form of payment, Starrett said. “We don’t treat anyone special. Everyone is equal at the table, It’s very, very important,” he said.

The University of Illinois at Urbana currently has a $.50 mandatory fee supporting th ISA. The univesity needs to decide if it will switch to the standard by Jan. 1, 1990 Stewart said.

The proposed fee received initial support from NIU students last spring, with 299 voting yes and only 49 opposing the proposal. If the Regents vote to support the fee, the refund would be available to students between the seventh an 13th week of the semester.

Student referendums also have passed at Southern Illinois Univesity at Carbondale and at Wright College, Starrett said. “We’ve never lost a referendum.”

The Regents voted against the fee at their May meeting because they said they needed more information about the auditing of the funding and how the money would be refunded.

The ISA receives some of its money from flat-fee funding paid by student governments at Illinois universities. Starrett said the fee for four-year colleges is $300 annually and $150 annually for two-year colleges.

Schools paying the flat-fee have until Jan. 1, 1990 to decide whether they want to remain under ISA representation by switching to the $1 refundable fee program.

NIU Student Association President Paula Radtke, who said she is optimistic the fee will be passed at the Regents meeting Thursday, voiced her support for the ISA saying the organization is very “pro-active” toward the issue of student rights.

For the past two years, the ISA has helped fund state-wide Day of Action activities protesting the lack of funding for higher education, Starrett said.

Starrett also commented on the controversial issue of the separation of NIU from its present governing board system under the Regents.

“It’s a potentially divisive issue,” he said. “Whatever position we take, it will have to be something the rest of the state can live with.”