Six stations were added to the cable package in the residence halls earlier this month, but Comcast SportsNet was not one of them.

“It’s really expensive, almost as expensive as all the other channels combined,” said Michael Stang, director of residential operations.

The sports network wanted to charge per month and per room instead of charging a flat rate for the campus, Stang said.

To add Comcast SportsNet would double the cost of the cable to the students. Keith Kruchten, president of the Residence Hall Association, said they received feedback from many students when Comcast SportsNet was not added. Students wanted the network, but did not want the raise in the fees, Kruchten said.

Senior geography major Eric Addante was one student who would have liked the popular sports network to be added. As a Chicago White Sox fan, Addante does not like that he cannot see all the Sox games.

“You can only see the Sox and the Cubs if it’s on WGN,” Addante said. “You can only see like 20 games. I have to go out to my buddy’s apartment if I want to watch the game.”

Students showed a good response and a strong interest in which cable channels were chosen to be added, Kruchten said. The newly added channels are E! Entertainment, ABC Family, ESPN Classic, ESPN News, the Game Show Network and AMC. ESPN Classic and ESPN News were added under contractual obligation. All of them will be available to students by the fall semester.

The RHA started gathering research a year ago to see what the students wanted. Last semester, surveys giving several cable options were distributed to residence hall residents. Some of the information in the surveys was used, but another survey was conducted to get more specific information, Kruchten said. A few weeks ago, 100 random surveys were passed out to collect this information. The decisions over which channels to add were based on those responses.

Stang said he also met with the RHA and determined which channels to add by what channels were within its budget, as well as what the students had voted. After this semester there will also be a new lineup for the stations. Similar programming such as music and sports will be grouped together, Kruchten said.