Undergraduate Student Government President Eddie Pauline has proposed that Ohio State add a mandatory fee to students’ charges to help fund extracurricular activities around campus. The amount per quarter would be about $15 per student and would raise roughly $3 million for student organizations around campus.

Apparently, the USG would rather take money out of every student’s pocket than simply have the people who participate in these activities pay for them on their own. Every student should not have to shell out cash just so less than half the OSU population can go to a free Dennis Miller show. Most people are already handing over a few thousand dollars or going into a debt that will take 10 years to pay off just so they can have an OSU education.

There is plenty of money out there; the student organizations just have to find it. Organizations that register with the Ohio Union can get up to $2,600 per year for expenses. The club baseball team receives only a nominal amount of cash from the university to pay for its costs, so it goes out and raises several thousands of dollars to cover the rest of its expenses. USG and the other student organizations should learn to play ball.

Besides, there is a reason thousands of Coca-Cola machines (many of which don’t work) litter the OSU campus, while there are no Pepsi or 7UP machines. It is to help fund student activities. In fall of 1999, Coke signed a $30 million contract with OSU to become the sole soft drink provider of the university. That is why the Ohio Union had the extremely lame Taco Maker for a couple of years, while Taco Bell was no where to be found.

A fair majority of that $30 million sell-out fund goes to student organizations. If any organization bothers to request it, the megacorporation will not only supply that organization with free soft drinks for its events, but it will also give out some cash.

Pauline and Co. are very quick to point out that other universities, like Penn State and Pittsburgh, have similar fees charged to their entire student population. Penn State and Pittsburgh make their students pay $25 and $70, respectively, so USG thinks its $15 would seem paltry by comparison.

If every other university jumped off a bridge, would OSU be expected to do the same? What is good for one university is not necessarily good for another university. USG made the right decision when it decided to add a $9 COTA bus fee onto students’ Statement of Account. The student activity fee, in contrast, is a really bad idea.

USG should have quit while it was ahead.