The proposed fee hike of $12.70 isn’t communism, it’s common sense.

Shawn Faurote does a good job weighing the costs involved in changing the payment system for Cy-Ride, but sadly, doesn’t see the bigger picture.

Mr. Faurote tells us when you buy the $49 dollar pass you pay about 30 cents per ride (two rides a day, about 80 days per semester). He then contrasts that with figures for an occasional rider. A person who only rides the bus to and from campus three times will spend $2.12 per ride under the new system, whereas they pay 35 cents per ride now. This appears to be a big difference.

There are several problems with this. Your ISU fees are wasted on several superfluous programs already.

Targeting these other programs for fat-trimming would save more money than nixing this proposal. If you live in the residence halls, you pay for cable and Internet access, whether or not you have a TV or computer. You pay for every club that you are not in. Any conference you do not go to, you pay for. You pay for everything GSB sponsors, whether or not you are involved in it.

Cy-Ride is set up so anyone can use it. Under the new system, maybe our occasional rider from above will ride the bus more and help alleviate traffic congestion.

Students pay for Cy-Ride already. Each student pays $20 for Cy-Ride now. Towers students pay an additional $35 for a bus in the dead of winter. Since we already pay for something some of us don’t use, why not ante up a little extra so when we are freezing we can hop onto a nice warm bus whenever we feel like it?

The cost is a substantial discount for many students. The everyday rider would pay only 16 cents per ride because she didn’t have to buy a pass.

We also have to remember that Cy-Ride services much more than to and from campus. I think that many students would take advantage of riding the bus to and from the mall, for example, if the ride was free.

Finally, when looked at in proper perspective, a $12.70 increase in cost for the bus system is a better buy than the 9.9 percent tuition hike. Go protest that.

Keith Twombley

Sophomore in Computer Science and Philosophy