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Once again, the University is in an uncomfortable financial situation. Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon recently announced a budget plan that would cut an additional $10 million from the University's state budget allocation, bringing the total cuts to IU in this two-year period to about $100 million.\nThis puts a considerable strain on IU to find funding elsewhere, and the closest place for the administration to look is to the students. Ball State recently increased its tuition by 10 percent for summer session students, citing O'Bannon's planned cuts as a reason for the increase. In the past, when smaller nearby universities have started raising tuition, it seems like only a matter of time before IU follows suit. \n IU President Myles Brand joined the leaders of five other universities in signing a letter to O'Bannon asking that the General assembly be called back into special session to address the issues relating to the budget deficit. But it's highly unlikely that this will happen, and if it doesn't, the University will have to find its money somewhere else. If it doesn't come from the state, IU will have no choice but to stick it to the students.\nIt's no wonder that young people are so apathetic toward voting, when the government clearly doesn't have the best interests of students at heart. If legislators cared about student interests, they would understand the importance of reconvening in a special session to fulfill their constitutional duty of passing a fiscally balanced budget, and they would raise taxes to prevent cuts to higher education. \nBut blaming legislators from afar isn't going to do any good. Students need to understand that Indiana legislators are their legislators, just as the money that they pay for tuition is their money. If students want to keep that money, the IDS urges them to make their voices heard by contacting legislators and urging them to reconvene in a special session. E-mail addresses for individual legislators can be found at http://www.in.gov/cgi-bin/legislative/contact /contact.pl.\nAlso go to http://www.in.gov/legislative/legislators/ to e-mail your local senator or representative. If you are from out of state, contact Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Monroe or Rep. Mark Kruzan D-Bloomington. Their contact information is available at the above-mentioned Web site.