Students living in the residence halls may have been taken by surprise after eyeing a $48 technology fee recently tagged onto their phone bills.

Although some students disagree with being charged the fee because they don’t have a computer in their residence hall rooms, Sabrina Hammond, manager of Information Technology Services’ customer support, contends that the money is going toward something useful for all students.

The fee covers a number of services including DSL or ethernet online access, cyber terminals in the residence hall lounges and computer labs, as well as funding for the ResTech help desk, which provides students with technical support for their personal computers.

In order to compete with other universities, and to attract more students to life on campus, the residence halls need to take such measures to remain in step with the information age.

The $48 technology fee charged each semester is reasonable for the amenities it pays for. However, springing it upon students’ phone bills is unfair, especially during the middle of the semester.

If the university needs the cash to support upgrading the residence halls’ access to the Internet and to offer students technical support, it should have added the fee to the room and board costs students shelled out at the beginning of the semester.

Charging students a $48 fee may not seem like much to the university, but college students aren’t necessarily known to have an excess of cash readily available. One lump sum at the beginning of the semester is easier to digest without surprise fees after the fact.