CAPITAL CRISES? A Northern Star article notes deferred maintenance at Northern Illinois and suggests it's part of a national trend.

As a result of tight state budgets, universities across the country are experiencing a shortage in capital funding for maintenance.

Some schools have had to increase student fees to fund maintenance and NIU administrators have discussed the topic as a last resort, said NIU President John Peters.

"It is something NIU may have to do, but I think this is the responsibility of the state," Peters said.

Government mandates and a less-than-satisfactory financial state in Illinois are two causes of the shortage in funding for the state's public universities.

In response to a build-up of deferred maintenance, the University of Illinois initiated a $500 student fee to be phased in over the next four years. The fee will address health and safety concerns that are student and instruction related, said Randy Kangas, the assistant vice president for planning and budgeting at U of I.

Kangas explained that some instructional facilities at U of I are in dire need of funding for maintenance, and funding for much of this maintenance has been deferred for the past decade, Kangas said.

The goal of the fee is to "try and help us catch up with deferred maintenance," Kangas said.

The story is true as far as it goes, but a comment by Northern Illinois president John Peters is incomplete.

Despite the need for funding, Peters said the funding for maintenance should not come from the students.

"These are buildings that were built with state money and it is the responsibility of the state because this is a state-funded institution," Peters said.

Peters is hopeful the funding will continue before NIU has to resort to charging the students.

"These are buildings that are in need of renovation, of repair," Peters said. "We're hoping that the state will turn around and restart the funding with the turnaround of the economy."

The buildings were built using state money, but under Illinois law, universities are able to issue revenue bonds for capital improvements. They are not able to engage in similar creative financing for operating and maintenance expenses. A number of the newer buildings on campus exist thanks to the monetary discipline of the Federal Reserve. The University was able to refinance some of its revenue bonds at a lower interest rate. Instead of paying off some of the bonds, the University kept its principal and interest payments the same and bought some new buildings. Although the additional facilities are useful, the same state rules get in the way of doing a refinancing to raise money for maintaining the buildings that have been built.