An increase in the number of class sections offered next semester will be one result of the $125 tuition surcharge approved by the Board of Regents in September.

James Norris, dean of NIU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said more class sections are currently being offered and will be offered next semester in “heavily overdemanded areas” such as economics, mathematics, philosophy and communications studies. Between 25 and 30 additional sections of LA&S classes will be offered next semester, he said.

The added class sections will be funded by the $125 tuition surcharge approved on Sept. 15 by the Regents, Norris said. NIU “gambled” that the Regents would approve the tuition surcharge and the LA&S college offered more class sections this semester than they had the money to fund, he said.

Associate Provost Lou Jean Moyer said the surcharge was necessary because NIU does “not have the resources to offer courses to meet students’ needs.

“We are operating in the best way we can,” she said.

“We have been careful with funding allocated to departments. We have not allocated all (of the funds) we expect to receive.”

Moyer said much of the funding received from past tuition increases has gone to salary increases. The tuition surcharge “frees up money to hire additional faculty,” she said.

When a tuition increase is levied, the funds go to the state first and then are re-allocated to the university, she said.

The permit system of class registration has been the target of complaints from one NIU student who said permits should be given out on “more of a credit basis.”

Tammy Bofferman, a senior education major, said the College of Education should consider students’ credits and their planned graduation date when assigning class permits.

Permit classes “are not where we are taking the severest crunch,” Norris said. Permits are distributed based on a student’s need to enroll in a certain course, Moyer said.

Norris said he “would be surprised” if there was a problem with students’ admission into permit classes because departments only issue as many permits as there are available spaces.