NIU President John LaTourette’s Fee Study Committee met Monday evening to review a proposal presented by the Northern Star Publication Board that would increase student fees for fiscal year 1989.

The proposal to charge full-time students $1.80 per semester would increase the Star’s budget by more than $75,000. The increase would provide funds to allow for expanded news coverage, purchase market research studies to benefit advertising revenues, purchase updated equipment and partially fund the Star’s business adviser’s full-time salary.

The Star currently does not receive funds from student fees. However, Diana Turowski, SA treasurer and student committee member, said a referendum was held to determine a Star fee for FY86, in which full-time students voted to pay 60 cents per semester during a one year period.

Norden Gilbert, associate legal counsel and Star Publication Board member, said the board is requesting additional funds so the newspaper “does not become a shopper” filled with advertisements and inadequate news coverage.

The student fee requested by the board would serve “in lieu of a subscription,” Gilbert said. The newspaper “should be paid for in some part by its readership,” he said.

The Star currently receives $7,500 from NIU for faculty and staff subscriptions. Northern Star Faculty Adviser Jerry Thompson said the newspaper’s distribution throughout the city is compensated for in the local advertisements that are purchased. “It generates additional revenue to enhance our income. The tradeoff is in our favor,” Thompson said.

Nick Valadez, graduate student committee member, said he questioned the justification of the Star’s proposal being presented to the committee and not to the SA for the student organization funds allocation process.

Gilbert said the Star “stopped going through the allocation process years ago because it didn’t fit.” Thompson said that in the past members of the Star have “battled” with the SA when requesting funds about student government editorials, free advertising privledges and the SA’s right to appoint the newspaper’s editor.

When asked if the Star will ever ask the SA for funds again Thompson said, “Not while I’m alive.”

Paula Radtke, SA president and student committee member, said the Star “is doing a great job” at generating its own funds. “I don’t understand the need to expand the budget,” she said.

“We’re damned for being successful, prudent and well managed,” Thompson said. Students are benefitting from a service that they are not paying for, he said.

The Star will survive without student fee support, but the Publication Board is requesting funds to produce a better paper with expanded news coverage, Thompson said.

The committee did not reach a preliminary decision regarding the Star fee request. A final decision will be presented in a report to LaTourette by mid-February.