NIU students paying their long-distance phone bills seem to have worn in the new Bursar’s Office in Lincoln Residence Hall.

The office has been in business since late October and is “working out very well,” said Business and Operations Controller Robert Albanese.

The office is located in Lincoln Residence Hall’s former B cafeteria and is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, the same hours as the original Bursar’s Office in Swen Parson Hall.

The new office is not only for bill payments, but it also allows students to ask questions and complete the same transactions completed at the Swen Parson office.

Bursar Richard Cochrane said the main reason for the second office was to accommodate the new long-distance phone billing system enacted this year.

Billing now is taken care of through the NIU Telecommunications Center, which is basically NIU’s own phone company, Albanese said. Through the new system students can pay their bills directly to the Bursar’s Office.

Cochrane said there really hasn’t been a decrease in business at the Swen Parson office.

However, he said there is more activity this semester at the Lincoln Residence Hall office than last semester because the new office collects the long distance telephone charges.

Albanese said there hasn’t been a problem with the extra traffic throughout the residence hall. “It seems like a steady flow of traffic but nothing overwhelming,” he said.