Douglas Hall Council members are questioning a proposal made by NIU Student Housing Services concerning Residence Hall Association (RHA) fund-raisers.

The proposal states that all fund-raising for the RHA will be at the front desks of the residence halls’ lobbies.

The proposal also suggests that all items will no longer be purchased with cash.

Don Buckner, associate vice president of Student Affairs, said he suggested that Student Housing Services look over the way the money is being handled.

“A fair amount of cash is handled there,” Buckner said. “I asked them to study their procedure to make sure it’s being handled the right way.”

In an effort to compromise with Student Housing Services, Douglas Hall Council organized a subcommittee to come up with another proposal.

This proposal was presented to RHA President Greg Post in a meeting held on Tuesday.

The proposal, organized by the subcommittee, suggests the adviser of a fund-raiser give a cash box to the person at the front desk with spare change in it.

When given the box, both the volunteer at the desk and the adviser will count the spare change, write it down in a record book and sign the book.

Receipts will be kept throughout the fund-raiser and held in the cash box.

At the end of the fund-raiser, the adviser and the volunteer at the desk will count the money and make sure it balances with the receipts. The final amount of money made will be recorded in the record book and signed again by the adviser and the volunteer.

The money immediately will be deposited and the receipt from the deposit must match the record book.

“It’s basically a system of checks and balances,” said Steve Hickman, Douglas Hall Council member.

The council also feels that writing checks for small amounts is a disadvantage, Hickman said.

According to John Jackson, vice president of programming for the Douglas Hall Council, if the proposal is adopted, students will not write checks for small amounts.

The council supported its proposal with the fact that some students do not have checking accounts.

“It’s going to kill a lot of fund-raisers,” Jackson said.

Hickman, who works at the front desk of Douglas Hall, said one other objective of the new proposal is to keep as few responsibilities as possible on the desk workers.

“It’s going to be even busier than it is now if people are buying things at the desk,” he said.

Post is going to present the new proposal to Willard Draper, assistant director of Student Housing Services.

“No matter what proposal we come up with, there will always be a problem,” Post said. “The idea is to adopt the policy with the least problems.”