The Student Committee on Political Action is accepting applications for members who will be in charge of educating students on higher education budget cuts and planning subsequent student action, SCOPA Chairman Tom Rainey said.

SCOPA, a Student Association committee, was formed during former SA President Ed Gallagher’s 1983-84 term as an extension of SCOPE (Student Committee on Political Education).

SCOPA, for which Fischer has overall responsibility, is included in the SA constitution with the purpose of having an SA body to educate and activate students on political issues, Fischer said.

ainey said he is looking for students who are “optimistic, open-minded, assertive and idealistic” to serve on the committee.

Fischer said the chairman of the committee officially selects the members, although the appointees must be approved by the SA senate. Rainey has not set a deadline for applications.

Since a committee has not yet been selected, student leaders and interested students have been involved in organizational meetings.

ainey said he invited student leaders from organizations representing a majority of NIU students to the Sept. 23 SCOPA meeting to plan the initial actions of the committee leading up to the statewide Oct. 21 Day of Action.

epresentatives from the Residence Hall Association, the Inter-Fraternity Council, several fraternities, the SA and the John Lennon Society attended the meeting. They decided on several plans of action including a letter-writing campaign.

ainey said RHA and fraternity members also were present at the first SCOPA organizational meeting Sept. 16 when they discussed plans to protest at the Sept. 18 Board of Regents meeting.

ainey and a group comprised mostly of JLS members dressed in tattered clothes and held up tin cups in a last-chance effort to protest the $150 tuition increase, which the Regents approved at that meeting.

The protesters identified themselves as SCOPA representatives, but Fischer said the action was not “officially a SCOPA event.”

ainey said, “The people most motivated to show up on that date were JLS members. I expressed my discontent about that at the last senate meeting—that if they don’t get involved it’s just gonna be a bunch of left-wing radicals representing students and that’s not fair representation.”

NIU Student Regent Nick Valadez said it was the students’ presence that prompted the Regents to pass a resolution indicating the Regents did not approve of the increase.

Although the goals of SCOPA at the beginning of the semester were to educate students to take action against the tuition increase itself, they have changed since the tuition increase was approved.

The goals now are to plan the Day of Action and “raise pressure on the state legislature hoping that they’ll call a special meeting to increase spending on higher education,” Rainey said.

NIU President John LaTourette said, “The students’ proposed action is quite appropriate.”