Student fees may rise $150 a semester due to renewal of the Academic Program Enhancement and Instructional Technology Surcharge.

The Board of Trustees’ Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee recommended and passed the program for renewal, said Nancy Castle, rehabilitation counseling professor, at Faculty Senate Wednesday.

The program was adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2003 and has a renewal clause of five years that is coming around, Castle said.

“Approval was recommended to implement the previously established rate of $250 in the fall,” Castle said. “Currently they are charging $100 a semester.”

The charge would apply to student fees, Castle said.

“So the students again are paying for what legislature won’t do,” said Diana Swanson, associate professor of women’s studies and English. Faculty Senate also discussed graduate student compensation.

“In terms of trying to attract good graduate students, the question was whether or not the stipends we offer at NIU are competitive with our peer institutions,” said Faculty Senate President Paul Stoddard.

The concern is over the possibility that NIU could lose graduate assistants on a financial basis to other schools, Stoddard said.

“We may ask at some point, as a faculty, whether we want more graduate assistants or we want to be able to attract better graduate assistants depending on the amount of money we might be seeing,” Stoddard said.

Aside from the financial standpoint, the senate also questioned other reasons why NIU could possibly lose potential graduate assistants.

“NIU is one of the few graduate schools in Illinois that doesn’t have a student rights and responsibilities act that protects graduate students from potential abuse from their graduate faculty,” said Elizabeth Miller, associate professor in the school of family consumer and nutrition sciences. “That also sets us apart from competitive programs.”

The existing student grievance procedure does not designate a student bill of rights and could complicate the matter further, said Buck Stephen, associate professor of mathematical sciences.

The pay component to compensation was passed on to the Economic Status of the Profession Committee and the student rights component was passed on to the Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee by Faculty Senate.