Compared with a lot of the expenses of college life, $35 — the amount of money that the Ohio Union Activities Board will receive from your mandatory Student Activity Fee from Fall through Spring quarters this year — is a miniscule amount of money. 

I had a roommate last year who racked up four separate $35 charges at a Gateway bar … over the course of one evening. I know this because he tacked up his credit card statement in the hall like a proud parent displaying his child’s report card.

But even though $35 is not a lot of money to some students, I decided to ask the question: How is the money that OUAB took from me this year being used? 

My article analyzing OUAB’s use of Student Activity Fee money ran last Monday and generated a lot of feedback. Based on the e-mails and commentary I received following its publication, some students were happy to see their newspaper ask the aforementioned question. One reader even referred to mandatory fees as “egregious redistributions of wealth.”

As OSU students, we pay a handful of mandatory fees: a COTA fee ($9 per quarter), a Rec Sports fee ($82 per quarter) and soon an Ohio Union fee ($25-$27 for two quarters, $55-$65 thereafter). Those fees add up, and not every student takes advantage of the services they provide. 

These fees are essentially a tax. Some people are fans of taxes and some aren’t, and both cases are laid out in my article, but I think it’s fair that everybody should know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent. 

For example, if students (or at least their elected government representatives) were able to see how much OUAB paid an individual artist, they could compare that fee with the event’s attendance and make an informed judgment as to whether the performance was worthwhile. 

I also think it’s fair to ask if anyone is going to bat for the taxpayers and holding those who spend the money accountable. If we’re paying a mandatory fee, do we at least get to elect representatives to decide how it’s spent?

OUAB is accountable to the Council on Student Affairs, a body made up of students, faculty members, staff members and administrators. Neither organization’s members are directly elected by students. 

One knowledgeable reader took me to task over this point, arguing that the council is made up of mostly student government members. This is true, but students don’t elect those members to the council. Nobody really has a problem with Congress deciding which members sit on Congressional committees, but the council is a separate body, and it lacks the direct student input that guides the student governments.

There is, however, a larger issue with the council that I found while writing the article—the committee’s official Web site, which publishes its meeting minutes and list of members, hasn’t been updated for almost three years. Even when it’s only $35 at stake, I think that students deserve an easier way to see how it’s being spent.