Some NIU students will soon be saved a trip across campus in order to pay their Bursar bills.

Proposed two years ago by Business and Operations Controller Robert Albanese, construction began last summer to convert the unused cafeteria in Lincoln Hall into a second Bursar’s office.

“We are in the process of getting all the work done and plan to open it in early October,” he said. “From then on, it will be open consistently every week for the rest of the school year.”

The cafeteria was available after Lincoln Hall acquired a new meal plan in which students were free to eat anywhere they pleased and two cafeterias were unnecessary, Albanese previously said.

The funding for the project will come out of the money the university collects from the new long-distance phone billing system enacted this year. Billing will be taken care of through the NIU Telecommunications Center, allowing students to pay their bills directly to the Bursar’s office.

“Before students receive their first bill, there’s really not much of a need to have it open yet,” Albanese said.

Bob Martens, assistant controller to the Bursar’s office, also said students will soon be able to utilize the new office.

“The equipment is coming in and toward early to mid-October, students will then be able to make a payment there,” he said.

Martens and Albanese also said the new office will not only be for bill payments, but will allow students to ask questions and perform the same transactions as at the Bursar’s office located in Swen Parson Hall.

“We’re trying to show students it will be not only for paying bills but a full service Bursar’s office,” Albanese said.

“Students should find it very convenient, especially those in the residence halls,” he said. “Many students have to go by it anyway, and those who had to go out across campus to go to the Bursar’s office can now take care of it on the way to class.”

Albanese also said his only fear is that the new office will be more popular than the old one.

“There will certainly be a lot of traffic—we just don’t want long lines in one place and no one in the other,” he said. “If all goes well, the two offices will be compatible and full service.”

The new office will offer the same features as the existing office, including a drop box, Albanese said.