Whether you want a statue, a fountain, a garden or anything else, there are only a few days left to turn in your idea for an NIU memorial.

According to Michael Malone, Feb. 14th Memorial Committee co-chair, the final date to submit written ideas for a memorial is Tuesday.

“We’ve received between 125 and 150 [e-mails], and we’d like to get more,” Malone said Thursday. “We’re talking about a special place on campus that memorializes, in an appropriate and dignified way, the events of Feb. 14 and the effects those events have had on the larger NIU community,” he said.

According to an NIU press release, President John Peters gave the committee four specific charges:

· Review and consider all suggestions submitted in writing related to the development of a memorial.

· Outline the various types of memorials suggested, with a listing of the relative merits of each type.

· Provide a list of possible campus sites for such a memorial space, again, with a list of relative merits.

· Present any general suggestions for university policy needed to support the development of a memorial space on campus.

Malone said another duty of the group is to look at various sites on campus where the memorial could be placed, and give the president the group’s feelings on the relative merits of some of the sites.

Malone said some of the e-mails contained ideas about locations such as the East Lagoon, near Cole Hall or the Barsema Alumni & Visitors Center as potential sites. However, he said that the committee was limited in how they could implement some ideas.

“Some of the suggestions are site-specific,” he said. “As a group, we’ll look at some of the most talked-about sites and pass on our opinions on the sites to the president as well.”

Peters set the deadline late last month.

“I’ve asked this group to provide me with a summary report by the end of May that will provide a platform from which we can develop specific plans for a fitting tribute to the five students we lost, those who were injured, and all those deeply affected by the tragic events of Feb. 14, 2008,” Peters said in a March 31 press release.

Students wishing to e-mail ideas can send them to [email protected].