NIU students, with a few exceptions, reacted negatively to a tuition increase approved by the Board of Regents at its Thursday meeting in the Holmes Student Center.

The increase in tuition comes in the form of a per credit hour charge. The more credit hours a student takes over 12 and up to 16, the more money the student must pay.

For example, students taking 15 credit hours a semester will see a 13.6 percent increase in tuition for the 1993-94 school year, while students taking 13 credit hours will see a 4.8 percent increase.

Most students expressed dissatisfaction with the new plan.

“I hope they plan to raise the amount of scholarships they give out if the increase goes through because if tuition keeps going up at this rate, people won’t be able to afford college. They would be better off going to a community college,” said freshman education major Amy Wallerich.

“I’m not eligible for financial aid so the increase would really affect me. I would probably have to take out more loans and end up coming out of school deeper in debt. I find the tuition increase to be really unfair,” said freshman education major Heather Anast.

“The tuition increase will affect all of NIU, but I don’t understand why it’s necessary. They can afford the faculty shuttle buses and pay raises, but what’s the advantage to the student. Personally, if the increase happens, money is going to be tight next year,” said sophomore nursing major Jennifer McCabe.

Some seniors feel lucky to be graduating this year so they don’t have to worry about the tuition increase.

“I’m glad I’m leaving this year, but I feel sorry for the students who have to deal with the increase because it’s so drastic,” said Jennifer Trott, a senior nursing major.

But, not all NIU students disagreed with the increase in tuition.

“It’s about time the university decided to increase the tuition, because NIU has stayed at basically the same place while inflation has caused everything else to go up. NIU services and departments are poor because they haven’t had the funding to improve. Complaints against the tuition increase by students are irrational because they don’t realize how much of the money is needed,” said Art Plonka, senior accounting major and vice president of the Campus Activities Board.

The tuition increase originally was supposed to be phased-in over a three-year period to soften the impact on students.

It was decided to condense the last two years of the increase into one year because Gov. Jim Edgar’s budget proposal reduced the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s recommended funding increase from $100.5 million to $37 million. The condensing of the increase will cause next year’s tuition increase to be higher than previously announced.