An advisory committee to NIU President John LaTourette tentatively approved a budget Friday of about $1,145,000 for the Student Association Mass Transit Board.

The President’s Fee Study Committee approved a student fee increase for the SAMTB from $2.33 per credit hour for the fiscal year 1989 to $2.42 per credit hour for FY90.

In a Nov. 11 meeting, the committee submitted a budget proposal that was not based on the most recent credit hour projections. The SAMTB members presented the updated budget proposals on Friday which reflected a seven cent decrease from the student fees per credit hour from the original proposal.

Committee member Wilma Stricklin suggested the SAMTB provide the committee with information of “hour-by-hour and route-by-route” bus usage so the members could better evaluate the proposed budget.

Paula Radtke, student committee member and SA president, said, “There are routes, I’m sure, that are not profitable, but you can’t divide it (the busing system). The system as a whole benefits. It has the second highest ridership in the state so obviously someone is using it.”

Radtke said the committee should not examine the usage by route and time because while one bus might have only a few riders another bus might be overcrowded.

Stricklin said, “It is possible to change the cost while giving extremely good service.”

Radtke said the mass transit board includes students and local residents that use the bus service. The board members use the service and pay the fees to support it so they “are in a perfectly fine position to judge the adequacy” of the busing system, she said.

In other business, the committee tentatively approved a grant-in-aid proposal that did not request a fee increase from the FY89 budget.

The proposed grant-in-aid budget for FY90 is $94,500.

Jerry Augsburger, student financial aid director, said the fee “provides financial support to the university scholars and academic finalists.

“The present fee structure would support the program to FY92” and then the program would enter a “slight deficit,” Augsburger said.

Committee member John Engstrom said the grant-in-aid program “is very good, but it’s a shame it comes out of student fees.” He suggested the program also be presented to the Development and University Relations Office as a possible program for their support.

Stricklin said the committee would like to continue the program whether Tom Montiegel, vice president of development and university relations, decides to support the program or not.

Official decisions on the approved budgets will not be made until the final report to LaTourette is made in February.

The next committee meeting is scheduled for Dec. 9 at 8 a.m. in the Lowden Hall conference room. The agenda will include the Health Service Fee proposal and possibly the Northern Star fee proposal.