Student Association officials are not making a formal statement about their views concerning the athletic department’s proposed student fee increase, but some might be leaning toward an increase.

The proposed fee increase would raise student fees $4.01 per credit hour by 1998. The average student taking 15 hours would pay an additional $60.15 by 1998.

SA President Paul Middleton said he would not issue an opinion on whether the student fee increase should be approved until both sides are presented at the SA’s next meeting.

Middleton said he would wait to get input from the senate before he could form an opinion. However, SA sources say Middleton is supporting the increase and has known about the proposal for at least a month.

Middleton denied knowing about the proposal or already formulating an opinion. Middleton, however, served on the athletic committee, which is a subcommittee of the President’s Fee Study Committee, where the proposal first came out.

Intercollegiate Athletic Director Gerald O’Dell said the subcommittee first met to discuss athletic funding Dec. 9, 1992. O’Dell said the subcommittee has been meeting for several months.

Other members of the subcommittee include Vice President for Finance and Planning Eddie Williams, O’Dell and Associate Vice President for Business and Operations Patricia Hewitt.

O’Dell and Williams have expressed support for the proposed fee increase.

“There are two sides of the coin,” Middleton said. “I don’t want to see students’ fees increase, but I don’t want to see us go to Division III or lose the athletic program.”

Dropping the football team a division lower would save money, and its playing schedule would become significantly easier.

“It’s hard to see $1.7 million eaten by the students,” Middleton said.

Student Regent John Butler also said he would not make a judgement concerning the fee increase because he will represent whatever decision the senate makes at the next Board of Regents meeting. The fee increase must be approved by NIU President John La Tourette as well as the Regents.

Butler did express concern about the proposal. “I am concerned about where the general revenue funds are going to go,” he said. Butler said he would need “assurance” that the funds will go to the five allotted areas that are spelled out in the fee proposal.

The five areas the fee increase supposedly would benefit are “additional sections for high demand courses, improved advising services for all students in the university, faculty salary increases, an increase in the availability of computer laboratories and more workstations in the library for student use,” the proposal states.

However, Butler previously said if push came to shove and a choice had to be made between academic programs and NIU’s athletic program, he would rather see the athletic program cut than academics.

Butler said he believes “students have to share some of the burden,” but they already “are taking on a big burden with the tuition increase.”

SA Treasurer Tony Lopykinski said both sides of the argument will be represented at the SA meeting. Williams and O’Dell are scheduled to address the senate.

The SA meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in the Clara Sperling Sky Room at the Holmes Student Center.