As clean up in the “Big Easy” drags from weeks into months, some federal financial aid funds have been proposed to be redistributed, potentially to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

NIU administrators have said Congress is far too early into the process for them to know how the eventual Higher Education Act would affect NIU students.

Kathy Buettner, the associate vice president and executive director of External Affairs and Economic Development believes NIU students will not be affected by any of the Hurricane Katrina legislation.

“Any student here that was affected by Hurricane Katrina will actually be better served as a result of legislation pending in Congress,” she said. “And our own students not affected by Hurricane Katrina will not be affected in any way, in a negative way, that I can see.”

Buettner added no bill has been passed that deals with student financial aid and Katrina. The proposals are more like ideas than actual legislation. She also stressed the bill is preliminary and may not pass for some time.

Under one proposal, colleges would be offered $1,000 for every student displaced by Katrina who enrolls at their institution, provided they have at least 10 displaced students enrolled.

The government should take responsibility for any costs displaced students might incur, Buettner said.

“It’s a very nice gesture, but as we look to bigger legislation, hopefully the government will look to reimburse these institutions who have taken in these students, not only NIU,” she said.

“It is a terrible situation in terms of the costs that are going to have to be undertaken,” Vice Provost Earl Seaver said. “The federal government is going to have to make some difficult decisions for funding. It is going to go beyond money earmarked for education.”

Seaver said six undergraduate and three graduate students have enrolled at NIU from affected institutions. NIU waived all costs for students whose institutions were closed as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

“We did work with the undergraduates who are visiting from other institutions and looked at their situation on a case-by-case basis and we were able to provide them all with tuition and fees,” said Dana Gautcher, the scholarship coordinator and financial aid retention advocate.

Some of the students’ other necessities were covered by the school, which also checked to see if they had any other needs appropriate for financial aid to cover, Gautcher said.

Seaver added not all of the money used to cover their tuition and other costs came from NIU pockets. Most of the funds and items given to the nine affected students were donated, Seaver said.

“A lot of people in the community have come forward wanting to buy personal items [for the students],” Seaver said. “Our community has shown an incredible outpouring of support.”

Because of this, Seaver does not believe students should be concerned about a hike in tuition as a result of NIU accepting Katrina victims.

“We wouldn’t raise tuition relative to the nine students coming here from affected institutions,” Seaver said. “We didn’t [accept the students] with the intent to get that money back from the students here.”