NIU is one step closer to seeing a security phone system installed on campus after the Student Association’s referendum passed by 64 percent Tuesday.

The phone system would cost each student a maximum of $3.24, and students would see the one-time fee on their fall 1989 tuition bill.

Elections Commissioner Robert Perry said 570 votes were cast, of which 366 were yes, 180 (32 percent) were no and 24 (2 percent) were invalid.

Ballots were deemed invalid if they were not stamped or initialed correctly by the poll worker or if the ballots were defaced, he said. In order to pass, the referendum needed 50 percent of those voting plus one vote.

The security phone proposal now awaits approval Sunday by the SA Senate, Perry said. If the senate passes the proposal, it then goes before the President’s Fee Study Committee and the Board of Regents for approval.

If approved, the phones would be connected to a switchboard at the University Police Department. A light would blink on the switch board to inform the police from which phone a call is coming.

In a previous interview, SA Welfare Adviser Lisa Gunn said the SA can afford to install about 15 phones at a total cost of about $63,000. She said money received from the student fee would be about $65,500.

A prior SA proposal called for 29 phones to be installed at a cost of between $115,000 and $118,000.

NIU’s Parking Division also has a proposal to install three security phones in campus parking lots, but the division put its proposal on hold until the results of the SA referendum were counted.

Public Safety Director Jim Elliott said previously if the referendum passes, the parking division probably will cooperate with the SA in installing phones. The Parking Division has allocated about $17,000 for the three phones, Elliott said.