Did anyone else see that amazing layout for the leisure pool we're going to have at CRCE when renovations are complete? When it comes to our school's commitment to athletics and recreational facilities, it's hard not to be impressed. However, after reading about the renovations on the front page of the DI on Wednesday, I couldn't help thinking: "This is ridiculous."

The Service Fee Advisory Committee boasts a measely 30 people who supposedly represent the student body (high turnout due to their arduous chalking of the Quad, no doubt), to give the OK on hiking up our mysterious student service fee for an additional $77 for a two-year period! Are we expected to swallow the burden of 77 bucks when the ISG duked it out over the $1 student fee? At least they had the consideration to make it a truly public issue.

Supposedly, no one has any basis to complain about the allocation of University money (your money) because the funding of the football stadiums, Assembly Hall enhancements and campus recreation renovations are not at all related to the funding for our education. Whether or not that may be the case, seeing as how our tuition costs and service fees go toward both the classroom and the gym, we should be suspicious of the all-too-familiar phrase, "due to budget cuts."

The fact of the matter is, many critical discussion sections have been cut, CITES can no longer operate 24 hours a day (which is a blow for students who don't own their own computers), and the quality of education has undeniably been compromised; no wonder I, as a student, feel somewhat shafted even as I look onto the noble construction of the better gyms of tomorrow.