Student fee hike possible

By Tammy Sholer

NORMAL—Student fees might be raised if the Board of Regents approves NIU’s request today to seek a contracting bid to repair the brick covering of the Holmes Student Center.

NIU President John LaTourette said funding the estimated $923,000 needed to replace the brick might come from a bond entities reserve fund consisting of student fees and operation.

The reserve fund was developed several years ago for maintenance and repairs of bond revenue buildings, LaTourette said. The student center is a bond revenue building.

NIU is in an “extraordinary” situation because no one anticipated external repairs would be necessary when the reserve was developed, LaTourette said.

“The university’s first priority is to find the most effective and cost efficient way to address the problem,” LaTourette said.

The second priority is to discover how to fund the repairs. “We (NIU) hope to either avoid a (student) fee increase or minimize the increase,” LaTourette said.

NIU Student Regent Nick Valadez said NIU should obtain the best materials, not the cheapest, to ensure the longevity of the student center.

“I believe students are willing to pay the extra money now than to keep paying for repairs later,” Valadez said.

“The fee process is going on now, and recommendations will go before the board in March,” LaTourette said.

The Regents’ facilities/finance committee unanimously allowed NIU Wednesday to present its funding request to the board today.

Donald Raths, principal engineer for the Raths, Raths & Johnson, Inc., Willowbrook, Illinois, said moisture and thermal expansion and contraction are the two main “villains” threatening the building.

“The villains are elements of nature which have to be addressed in the design and construction of the building,” Raths said.

The brick veneer of the student center will have to be replaced because of moisture and other factors, Raths said. The top five feet of the building is in the worst condition, despite having had the brick veneer replaced in 1977, he said.

“The building is suffering freeze-thaw deterioration due to lack of weep-holes …,” Raths said. “Weep holes” are tiny holes in the brick which allow water to drain out and prevent the bricks from reaching their saturation point.

“The building also is suffering distress and cracking displacement in corners due to lack of expansion joints,” Raths said.

Expansion joints give the building relief so bricks do not expand and split, Raths said.

The student center was designed without vertical expansion joints so the bricks are fitted tightly together which causes pressure and splitting, he said.

Raths said NIU should go back and properly design and construct the brick covering of the building. He said if construction and designing are done properly repairs should not be needed for 50 years.

He said continual maintenance is necessary to prevent deterioration.