What’s going to cost you $219 dollars more a semester if it passes the special student referendum vote on December 2 and 3? The proposed Student Center Arena, brought to you by a handful of students as a semester long campaign project.

The way they are going about it is “discreet” to say the least. Other than the half page ad in the State Hornet, with a link to a web page that gives a smidge more detail than the advertisement; these students haven’t done anything to inform the campus about this proposal.

Yet, Kathrine Baskins, a student working on the campaign told the Sacramento Bee, “We don’t want to say, ‘Here’s a $219 increase, have fun, we want to make sure people really want this.” It doesn’t seem the student body was even consulted in the decision as to whether or not an arena was needed–this vote is telling students, we know what’s best for you, even though we’re leaving and didn’t ask your opinion about what you want to see happen on your campus.

Where does this small group of seniors get the idea that the rest of us need a new arena? Need I remind them of the city wide effort to build a new arena for the Kings just broke ground last week, or the likelihood that an arena on campus would not do anything but cost students money, take away parking spaces during its construction, and deflect the focus from the need for better academic facilities.

It is more than a little bit concerning that this “special vote” was advertised just over a month before 28,000 students fate are sealed by this class, that won’t be here to feel the impact of $219 more a semester, that will rise with inflation.

As a senior who currently pays for tuition out of pocket, on top of books, rent, and groceries, any additional fees, is unfeasible. Moreover, this will make Sac State the university with the sixth highest student fees in the CSU system, and this wont be because we have great classrooms or an exceptional teaching staff. It will be because of an arena we don’t need.

 The half page ad in the State Hornet reads, it will be a place for “special ceremonies, and live events,” quite honestly, that’s a little too ambiguous for my “yes” vote. Students need more than political jargon before we are able to make a decision of this magnitude. What ceremonies? What special events? What is the overarching need that the center is meeting? We are receiving a college education, so we can make informed decisions, and the students of this class should recognize that and we should be treated with such; thus, a half page pros and cons list is not nearly enough.

Perhaps its the blatant waste of their tuition dollars in a class urging them to propose unrealistic expectations for students that makes these seniors think we all dont mind wasting our money in student fee hikes for something so frivolous.