This week I start my fifth full-time semester as a student here at Iowa State, and having lived at Towers the entire time, I’ve yet to rely on a CyRide bus as a mode of transportation to campus.

Though I have walked or biked to all of my classes in the last two years and continue to do so this fall, I’m wholeheartedly against a cut in the schedule of the busses taking students to and from Towers.

Why?

Because — despite what the Department of Residence “suits” sitting in their plush, air conditioned offices down in 1215 Friley will tell you — the residence halls out at Towers aren’t all that great.

Who are they to say what it’s like here? I don’t exactly see Randy Alexander living down the hall from my room.

Don’t get me wrong; I really like living in Wallace — after all, this is my third year here. But to live in a place where the school would prefer putting up a chain link fence around a building and later tearing it down to repairing it to a better condition and reopening it as a new and improved building (i.e. Maple Hall) — it’s all just a little disconcerting.

Another one of the main reasons I’m against the budget cuts (which will most likely lead to an increase of Towers residents’ fees) is that though I don’t even use the CyRide service, I’ll have to pay more for it.

In the tradition of my two health facility fees and a computer lab fee will be another fee for CyRide, all of which I never use, yet are so kindly slapped onto my U-bill each semester.

Instead of spending so much money on one building that houses less than 500 students, maybe a little more money could go towards a program that helps to transport some of the more than 2000 students who live at Towers.

Alex Pollitt

Junior

Art and design