As the last strains of “no tuition increase” echo throughout campus—for the time being anyway—faint whispers of “fee increase” have risen to take their place.

Fee increases are nothing new. They take place every year and are generally accepted as a part of life. The facilities and services these fees are designed to pay for cost more and more every year. So it comes as no suprise that students can expect to pay a little more here and there for basic services such as busing and health care.

owever, there is one recurring problem that seems to defy all attempts to solve it. That is NIU’s Recreation Center.

Dating back to 1979, when the rec center was first proposed, the phrase “student fee increase” has always been mentioned along with it. After eight years, it’s time to end the relationship.

In 1983, students voted against the building of the rec center. Despite that, construction commenced and the headaches began. For four years the rec center has been fraught with problems—problems the students have had to dig deeper into their pockets to solve. These included a contaminated water system, a $38,000 bill for the replacement of the basketball hoop system and the current $300,000 operating debt.

Now, as if NIU students weren’t faced with enough new financial woes, the old specter of the rec center is coming back. Students paid a $7.20 increase to keep the rec center afloat this year. But the debt is still here and just as big as ever.

True, as some officials have implied, it’s early to speculate on a possible fee increase. But if one looks at the past four years, a trend is clearly evident. Student fees have been repeatedly increased to finance the rec center.

Students have been asked to foot the bill for this administrative white elephant for too long. The huge debt is not the fault of the students. Their fees should no longer be used in a continuing, yet vain, effort to rectify the deficit situation in a facility students did not want in the first place.

Sure it’s early to speculate on fees. But it’s not too early to start thinking of other things. A rec center committee, in addition to a fee study committee, to find alternative ways of dealing with the problem would be a step in the right direction.