NIU student Ben Yamamoto, freshman photography major, is organizing a student-led search party for missing freshman Antinette Keller that is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Students who want to join the search party should meet in the courtyard behind Neptune North at 1:30 p.m.

“I am organizing a search party tomorrow at around 2 p.m.,” Yamamoto said. “I am planning on calling the Lee, Ill. Fire Department to get as much help as I can get.”

Yamamoto said he encourages students to bring flashlights or lanterns to the search, which is scheduled to end at midnight.

Yamamoto is publicizing the student-led effort on Facebook.

This search is being held on the same day the NIU Police Department and other NIU officials plan on meeting to discuss how to get the community involved in the search effort for Keller.

“We’re encouraging people to get involved, but the Department of Public Safety  is going to meet with the NIU Police Department and university officials and administration to integrate and try to coordinate such an effort,” said Brad Hoey, Media Relations and Internal Communications team leader . “That way, everyone can work together on a campus and community-wide search effort.”

The meeting is being held because of the large outcry of public interest in finding Keller, Hoey said. He said he hopes the meeting will result in a plan for getting the community involved in an organized and responsible manner.

Although Hoey said he hopes Yamamoto will coordinate with NIU police and officials, he is not discouraging the student’s efforts.

“The professional effort has been taken by law enforcement, but nobody has been turned away from taking part in the effort,” he said.

Yamamoto said he only met Keller one week ago, but the two became friends fast. Yamamoto describes Keller as a shy, yet loving and strong person.

“We started to hang out daily and I got to know her really well,” Yamamoto said.

The search party plans to look through the wooded area behind the Junction Shopping Center, 858 W. Lincoln Highway, which was the last place Keller was known to have been.