If you use Huskie Bucks in the beverage machines, someday you might be able to satisfy your snack cravings in the same manner.

Currently, there are 14 drink machines on campus that offer the convenience, but Kathe Shinham, associate vice president of Finance and Facilities, expects more by this spring.

“There will be more locations in Barsema Hall and the residence halls,” she said. “The locations were chosen based on requests.”

The residence halls were a priority because many of the students who live there have Huskie Bucks.

“Students in residence halls normally have money on their cards to do laundry or buy supplemental food,” Shinham said.

The procedure of receiving machines with the Huskie Bucks reader has to do with the contract between NIU and Pepsi.

“In our contract with Pepsi, we told them we wanted that capability,” Shinham said. “Pepsi is picking up the cost of the readers.”

Shinham said the machines do particularly well in locations with heavy traffic.

“DuSable Hall has heavy traffic and Lowden Hall has little,” she said. “Therefore, the machines do better in DuSable.”

Shinham said the machines also do well at the Student Recreation Center.

“Drinks, particularly the water, do well at the Rec,” she said.

Someday in the future, snack machines also could see Huskie Bucks capability.

“The drink machines are basically a trial to see how well it works,” Shinham said. “We’ll look at it next time we negotiate a contract.”

Shinham also is more confident about the contract the university holds with the current snack vendors, as opposed to contracts in the past.

“We’ve held this contract since fall of 1998,” she said. “I think they’re doing a great job at keeping the machines full and providing foods that are more appealing.”

Shinham was not as pleased with the contract prior to the current one.

“They didn’t do a very good job,” she said. “The machines were usually empty and the food wasn’t very appealing.”