Students living in the residence halls should sleep soundly knowing a mattress company will replace about 1,070 incorrectly delivered mattresses with fire-retardant “Survivor” models.

NIU Materials Management Director J.D. Widick said the wrong mattresses had been delivered by Glackin Industries, based in New Jersey, to NIU before the Fall 1988 semester began. He said they are currently being replaced because they “were not to specifications.”

NIU ordered fire-safe mattresses for the residence halls, and Widick said it is believed that the company had mixed the NIU order with that of another university. One of the mattresses had to be destroyed in order to see if it was fire retardant, and NIU officials discovered that it was not. The company concluded that the mattresses NIU received were custom-made for another university.

Glackin industries is replacing the mattresses at no charge to NIU, Widick said.

“The students did definitely need them (the mattresses). They are the ultimate in being fire-safe,” he said.

Widick said they began replacing the mattresses Thursday, and all of the necessary replacements will be made by Christmas break.

Margaret Phillips, area coordinator for Neptune Hall and Gilbert Hall, said the mattresses on the first floor of Neptune East were replaced on Thursday. “We are taking them one floor at a time,” she said.

NIU Facilities Manager Nancy Ciscell said the company will be replacing 410 mattresses in the “C” tower of Grant Towers North, 255 in Lincoln Hall and 402 in Neptune East.

Ciscell said Glackin Industries was “quite willing” to work with NIU on replacing the mattresses. She said, “Not all companies would have been as eager to solve the problem.”

It is a problem worth solving because the company has “a superior product” with the “Survivor” model mattress.

Phillips said she has not received any comments or complaints from students in the Neptune Hall.