I am writing this column in response to recent events regarding the use of student fees.

This is not about the Union Activities Board. Neither is it about the uproar that surrounded the Dirty Bingo event put on by that organization last week. It is not about the various items they purchased. No — that event was just a more visible, more extreme case of an underlying and under-discussed problem with the current fee structure we have at N.C. State.

According to the N.C. State Cashier’s Office, students are forced to pay $2,039.56 per year in fees for extracurricular luxuries, regardless of individual use. $2,039.56 for extracurricular programs — in the face of mounting student loan debt and in the face of these troubled economic times.

We are here for an education. If you think that extracurricular activities on campus are conducive to a better college experience, then by all means, go for it — with your own money. But don’t force those who are here for the purpose of education to foot the bill for others who are interested in a little something more on the side.

After all, why should CHASS majors have to pay $143 a year for a bus system they rarely use, if at all? Why should those who are uninterested in sports have to pay $142.28 a year for others to enjoy the privilege of participating in our Intramural Sports? The list goes on.

The only reason someone would support a flat fee across the board for all students, as opposed to charging individual participation or entrance fees for each program, is that they are benefiting from the loss of someone else.

We see the tens of people who show up to programs such as Dirty Bingo when they are hosted, but the thousands of people who foot the bill go by unnoticed. We see hundreds of students participating in our Intramural Sports leagues, but we do not see the thousands who have paid for a program they have neither the interest nor intent of using. The most active members of our society are inherently the most visible.

I’ll concede this — the best argument in defense of the current system is that we as students chose freely to come to N.C. State. It’s a package deal: We knew we’d have to pay for these things before we even signed on, and the fees we pay definitely help in setting our experiences here apart from those of other schools.

But we must not forget that the “our” we are referring to here is inherently only a select few individuals who choose to be active on campus, and these experiences are being paid for by the rest of the community. The system is successful when, and only when, a large portion of students choose to not participate in those programs. If everyone utilized every program they paid for, the system would fall apart. It is designed to concentrate benefits to a few, while dispersing costs to the many. 

I will conclude with this: There is a definite distinction between real fees, which by definition are optional charges for optional additional services, and fake fees (such as those of the Wolfline and Intramural Sports), which are consequentially equivalent to tuition. The partisan division we see on campus today is a result of the decision to pool money and then divide that pool, giving benefits to active special interest groups on campus. No such division would exist if people simply spent their own money because then no one would be benefitting at the expense of others.

Sure, some may think that a penny here and a few pennies there don’t matter, but in the end it all adds up. Don’t believe me? Just check your fee bill.