After an hour and a half of deliberation, the Student Association Mass Transit Board decided on who would handle its advertising accounts for next year.

Pi Sigma Epsilon, an NIU sales and marketing fraternity, was chosen to handle the buses’ advertising for the fifth consecutive year. Also in the running were the American Marketing Association and Alpha Phi Alpha.

Each group was given a half hour, plus fifteen minutes allotted for questions, to make a presentation to the five representatives of the SAMTB at an executive session of Monday’s meeting.

The groups were evaluated on the basis of their ideas for the bus sign advertising program, the numbers of people in the organization and the presentation overall.

“We based our decision on a lot of things,” said SAMTB Adviser Pat Sanchez. “It was important to look at the groups’ new ideas for entering into new markets, and to make sure that the transition from the new executive board to summer service would go well.”

Sanchez also said that PSE’s sales are expected to be more than $15,000 next year.

PSE’s job as the SAMTB advertising agent includes selling bus sign space, collecting all revenue, providing weekly reports to the SAMTB and publicizing sign service.

The organization will be responsible for all interior and exterior advertising space on the buses. The contract is awarded annually only to an SA-recognized organization.

Sanchez also said that all three groups did an exceptional job with their presentations.

“I have to commend them all because in the three years that I’ve been here, they were the most professional, complete and interesting presentations to listen to,” he said.

“All of them filled the criteria. That’s what made it so hard to decide. They all would have worked hard and the choice was tough,” Sanchez said.

Rick Clark, University Programming and Activities assistant director, agreed with Sanchez on the difficulty in the decision.

“We had to do some thinking, and we couldn’t have gone wrong with any of the three groups,” Clark said. “PSE just proved they were the most capable group, and no one really proved we needed to replace them (PSE).”

SAMTB member Jose Rivera also believed PSE was the best choice for the job.

“We made the right decision in choosing PSE again,” he said. “I hope they keep working the way they have this year.”

However, the decision was not based on the mere fact that PSE has won the last four years, Sanchez said. “Their past performance speaks for itself, but they were not chosen solely because they have won before. It could have easily gone another way.”

Sanchez also has ideas for ways to implement awarding the contract to two organizations in the coming years.

Sanchez said he might bring up ideas at the next meeting to have two groups contracted instead of one.

“We could award both groups and have them work competitively to fill the ads, calling in to a central master sheet to show what spaces are available and to avoid duplication,” he said. “As it is, half of the bus space goes unadvertised.”

Sanchez‘ other idea is to have two groups, one for the fall semester and one for the spring, and have them work together during the summer service.

Because last year’s experimental summer service was found to be very successful, there will be summer service this year beginning June 22 until Aug. 7.