An advisory committee to NIU President John LaTourette decided Friday to postpone a tentative decision about whether to recommend an increase in the Student Association Mass Transit Board busing fee.

The President’s Fee Study Committee began reviewing a proposal submitted to the committee by the SAMTB requesting a student fee increase of 16 cents per credit hour for fiscal year 1990. This increase would raise the current student fees from $2.33 per credit hour to $2.49 per credit hour.

The committee decided a vote on the proposal was premature because the estimates presented to the board were not based on the most recent credit-hour projections. The committee will vote on the busing fee at the next meeting, but the official decision will not be released until the final report to LaTourette is made in February.

SAMTB Chairman Dave Emerick said that if the board does not receive an increase from the FY89 budget, FY90 will result in a $42,000 deficit. “We’re an efficient and effective operation, but we can’t be that if we run a deficit.”

Emerick said the major cause of the deficit would be the base bid. The base bid involves a five-year contract between the board and the American Transit Corporation that determines the number of buses, routes and hours of operation.

As a contract agreement, the base bid will increase by about $50,000 from FY89 to FY90, he said.

Last year, SAMTB began to provide handicapped-accessible transportation which cost the board about $15,000 as opposed to previous years when $1,500 to $2,000 was spent on handicapped transportation services, Emerick said.

“The handicapped transportation service is somewhat expensive, but the board is willing to provide it because they are the major source of transportation on campus,” Emerick said.

Another fixed expense is additive services, he said. SAMTB is allotted time to run the busline until 12:15 a.m. Because bus routes three and four are needed until 2:15 a.m., “we are going outside of our parameter and have to pay an additive service charge,” Emerick said. The board is charged a monthly leasing fee for each bus of $1,094 and an hourly rate of $15.29, he said. The Late Nite Ride Service is also an additive expense, Emerick said.

He said the board is reviewing cost-reduction options that might be possible in the base bid contract, but the contract is not due for renewal until 1992.

Wilma Stricklin raised the question of using direct facilities to service individual handicapped students as opposed to having a handicapped services busing system.

Emerick said that a direct service had been used in the past as a means of transportation for handicapped students, but “the problem is people would have to be manhandled and (the handicapped students) find that demeaning.” He said the board will be requesting handicapped-accessible buses in the future that are equipped with wheelchair lifts so students will not have to be physically lifted into the vehicles.

The next committee meeting is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 2 at 8 a.m. in the Lowden Hall conference room.