Students have scored some small yet important victories in the annual tuition and fee review process.

Not only has the University only asked for a 3.6 percent tuition increase, the first time in recent memory that the administration has not pushed a 6.5 percent increase, but Student Government has again presented students with a comprehensive service by giving them the opportunity to vote on how they feel about the fee increases proposed by the different units within the University.

And as students now have the ability to watch the fee proposals via video on the N.C. State Student Affairs Web site, there’ll be no basis for the administration to claim students weren’t informed enough to make decisions concerning their tuition. I hope students take the time to make these informed decisions, since it is their money.

However, the Athletics Department is back again this year, asking for another fee increase to support capital improvements as well as a general increase in the operating costs for Olympic sports and inflation offsets. From last year’s referendum, 74 percent of the students voting did not support an increase in the Athletics fee.

I still don’t think it had anything to do with the teams’ performance – instead, it was a direct consequence of the students’ troubles getting into games, having to go through pat downs and cramming through limited gates on the opposite side of the stadium from the student fairground lot. The fee was eventually cut to $7.50 and passed, but still nothing major has changed for the students on game days – they are still having trouble getting into their seats before kick-off.

There’s only so much that Student Government can do to dramatically change ticketing and entrance procedures without the Athletic Department’s help so the burden of this issue is truly in the administration’s hands.

So here’s a proposal – the operating cost fees are necessary in order to keep us competitive nationally and give our teams the edge to win ACC Championships. But instead of buying new video scoreboards, why not give the students a tangible benefit? For a one-time cost of approximately $400,000, the Athletics Department can install wireless access points and the necessary equipment to make it possible for students to enter through every gate at the stadium.

More access points would free up the congestion at the gates for students and potentially allow the Wolfpack Club to start issuing tickets with bar codes as well to be scanned at the gates for entry. Rather than using the logic of needing to keep up with UNC and ECU, give students something in return for our continued support of athletics. A solid athletics program from top to bottom is good for a university, and the students want to support their teams.

But it would be a lot easier to support these teams if some of our money went to making it easier for us to get in the games rather than giving a random concourse at Carter-Finley Stadium a face lift.

Tell Benton where you think athletics money should go at [email protected].