NIU’s Parking Division put its security phone system on hold until the votes on a Student Association referendum for a security phone system are counted.

Public Safety Director Jim Elliott said the parking division had begun a process to install three security phones but postponed their proposal because of the SA’s possible project.

Phones were scheduled to be installed in parking lots O, A and W for reasons such as calling for help without having to walk to the residence halls, Elliott said.

SA Welfare Adviser Lisa Gunn said the SA’s proposal is to install 15 phones around campus which would cost about $63,000 total. She said funds would come from a one-time student fee that would not exceed $3.24.

The referendum will be on today’s SA Senate elections ballot.

If the SA’s referendum to install security phones around campus fails, the parking division probably will resurrect its former proposal, Elliott said.

However, if the referendum passes, the parking division plans to work with the SA to install the phones, he said.

He said the parking division allocated about $17,000 for the Motorola system. Gunn said each Motorola phone costs $3,700 and operates on a battery.

Capt. James Webster of the University Police department, said he favors installing a security phone system, but said he does not believe a lot of danger exists on campus.

The system could be used for people whose cars have stalled or have run out of gas, Webster said. The phones would be helpful in a medical emergency or if an individual is being assaulted, he said.

Webster said, in the past 20 years, there has not been a problem with individuals being sexually assaulted outdoors on campus. No rapes have been recently reported to the UP station, he said.

Most sexual assaults are acquaintance rapes, Webster said. “A stranger leaping out of the bushes doesn’t happen here,” he said.

Gunn said about 200 universities nationwide have security phone systems.

Robert McKenna, assistant director of police at the University of Chicago, said the 110 security phones they installed have helped prevent all types of crimes, including robbery.

Tony Barron, telecommunications manager at Bradley University in Peoria, said they installed 10 security phones last summer and plan to install more.

Barron said he does not believe 10 phones are adequate to serve the approximately 7,000 students enrolled at Bradley. He said the phones mostly have been used in non-emergency situations where the campus-wide intercom system has been utilized.

The intercom feature allows individuals to call any phone within the university, Barron said. Students use the intercom to call a friend if they are locked out of a residence hall, he said.