Students living in the residence halls have been going through MTV withdrawal since last week, and chances are they won’t get to see it again until after Thanksgiving break.

George Morisette, chief engineer at Campus Media Services, said the channel was lost due to a broken video deciphering unit. Why the unit broke, he said, still remains a mystery.

Morisette said NIU has had four units like this in operation for the past five years and this is the first one that turned out to be defective.

“We expect to have it back in service by the time students return from Thanksgiving break,” he said.

Student Housing Services Director Carl Jardine said nobody is quite sure exactly what happened to the equipment, but that “it just stopped working.”

Jardine said the part has been sent away for repair to corporate MTV offices, who promised to have the part repaired within two weeks.

He said MTV representatives told him that if the part is unable to be repaired, it will be replaced with a new one.

Jardine said the MTV loss is isolated to the residence halls. “The university has its own descrambler,” he said.

Students also may be wondering why MTV doesn’t come in over the radio either. Jardine said the satellite signal is not split for MTV on the TV and the radio.

“I assume when the signal is disrupted students won’t get either,” Jardine said.

Student reaction to the MTV loss is mixed.

Freshman pre-computer science major Scott Sandee said, “They should bring MTV back because there’s nothing else on.”

Ty Hopp, junior computer science major, said it really doesn’t affect him because he rarely has the time to watch television.

“If I had more time to watch TV it’d be great to have it back,” he said.