We’ve all relied on it at least once in our lives as an excuse to procrastinate on a paper.

A great number of us have used it for research; in an attempt to avoid making a late-night trip to the library, we rely on it’s seemingly infinite wisdom.

It’s the Internet, and if the Iowa House of Representatives and local phone companies have their way, it will no longer be free to off-campus students at ISU, UNI or Iowa.

Apparently, local Internet providers and phone companies are complaining that the free access the state provides to these students was competition that was taking away their potential business.

The bill has already passed the House, and is working its way through the Senate. Although several representatives believe that Governor Branstad will veto the bill if it reaches his desk, just the fact that it would get that far is a dangerous sign for students.

There is a bigger issue here: What is more important, the interests of private companies or students’ rights? How many of us would still use the Internet as often as we do now, if we had to pay for the privilege?

“What do I tell my customers that pay $20 to $30 a month for Internet access?” asks the manager of a Preston, Iowa phone company. “I should just tell them to find a student, go to their house, and get it for free.” Um, bitter much?

As students, we already pay thousands of dollars a year for the “privilege” of getting a college education. We enter into a mountainous debt, take way too many credits in order to graduate on time so that debt doesn’t get any bigger, and spend what little free time we have working so we can afford to eat.

Being a student, especially off-campus where you have to pay for everything from food to heat, is expensive enough as it is. The least we can ask for is free Internet services.

At the heart of the battle is the state-owned Iowa Communications Network. Iowa has spent over a billion dollars on the network, and it is one of only a few of its kind in the country. The service was created as a way to enhance education in Iowa, and I for one think that it has definitely been fulfilling that goal.

Before I came to ISU, all I knew about the Internet was that parents didn’t like it because their perverted little boys could download nudie pictures. At least, that’s what Barbara Walters said, and of course, TV news magazines are information gods.

The first time I ventured online, I was amazed. There was just SO MUCH STUFF!!! All of a sudden, I was checking out the Dachshund Lovers’ Homepage, catching up on what happened on those DAYS episodes that I missed and seeing my picture on the Equestrian Club page! WOW!

To the phone companies, this might be all they think students do with their free Net access. I can see those greedy, stuffy executives sitting in their meeting rooms, visualizing 20 stoned freshmen huddled around someone’s Gateway checking out “The Ralph Wiggum Homepage.”

Well, I hate to burst your bubble, guys, but sometimes we actually do PRODUCTIVE SCHOOLWORK with the Internet!

The Web provides us with the most up-to-date information possible. Information on everything from the U.S. Government to Genetic Disorders in Companion Animals can be found online, just sitting there waiting for research paper-writing students to utilize. Granted, we already have a top-notch library, but there are some things that you can get off the Internet that would be out-of-date or not even covered in a book.

I’m willing to bet that if students had to pay to access the Net, there would be a lot fewer people using it. That might be a good thing in some aspects, like providing one less distraction for students who are supposed to be researching or writing, but as a whole, I’m afraid that asking students for more money would end up causing more headaches than it’s worth.

Students are always complaining about how ISU is “selling out” to corporate sponsorship. Let’s work together to ensure that our computers aren’t bought as well.

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Holly Benton is a sophomore in animal science from Early.