Athletics fee gets us nothing

The approval of the athletics fee leaves us dumbfounded. \nLast year, we were told it was a one-year fee that would be applied to students. Poor money management and questionable firings contributed to this, and the students are, once again, expected to foot the bill. \nTrustee Patrick Shoulders voted against the athletics fee both times around. He even rallied against it last year, noting that "one-year" fees tend to stick around longer than expected. As it turned out, he was right. \nEven if the fee has to be implemented, we want to know how long this is going to last - the athletics department needs to present a plan that states exactly how many years this fee will be implemented and discontinue asking for one-year extensions. Maybe it would be easier to understand if we knew just how much it's going to take. \nBut we don't think the athletics department has considered all of its options. Basketball and football are the only sports that charge admission. Why not soccer? The IU soccer team has had great seasons for many years, and won seven national titles. While it's nice to get in for free, requiring a couple dollars would certainly help the department and would be far less annoying than a $30 fee. At least it would seem like we were actually getting something for our hard-earned money. This could even be applied to swimming, tennis and all the other sports IU offers to spectators. We're not talking about millions of dollars, but it's a start. \nWe also like Rick Greenspan's idea to market Assembly Hall and wish it would have been considered more thoroughly prior to this fee. Looking at ads is a better solution than opening our wallets for one more fee. We would gladly give up the long-standing tradition of not having advertisements in Assembly Hall if the athletics fee was discontinued. How much do you think Mark Cuban would pay for naming rights? Even if alumni didn't like it, advertising could probably make up for the difference. \nThe athletics department is certainly an essential part of IU. It contributes to enrollment and school attention, but it needs to fix its financial woes without leaning so heavily on the students. In Friday's Indiana Daily Student, IU President Adam Herbert said it's the students' responsibility to help bail out the athletics department, saying "there is no free lunch." Like the athletics department, the IDS is an auxiliary unit of the University. If we spiraled millions of dollars into debt, would the president force the student body to bail us out? We hope not. \nThe problem is not that students are looking for a free lunch. Rather, the University spent a king's ransom on what appears to be a peasant's board.