Students are willing to take on the financial problems of the state and pay any price for their college education.

That’s the message we gave to a tuition study panel of legislators, educators and other students on Wednesday when only five people attended an open forum about tuition.

The Joint Committee on College Tuition, a newly-formed Illinois Student Associaton group, came to NIU to get a feel of how increasing tuition in recent years has put a burden on students.

One of the few pro-student legislators, Sen. Patrick Welch, was part of the tuition panel and all NIU managed to do was show him that his efforts to protect students have been meaningless.

“If students start voting and writing letters, you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll listen. Students’ destinies are in their own hands,” Welch said at the forum. And he couldn’t have been more right.

No legislator is going to fight our student battles for us if we’re not willing to fight for ourselves. If students don’t vote and come out publicly against tuition increases, we might as well just pull out a blank check and hand it over to the state.

Just look at the threats of the Evanston City Council members who want to put a tax on tuition in their town. If one city council can be convinced, it is only a matter of time before politicians all over the country start joining in.

What the heck, they’ve got student apathy in their corner.