Editor, Daily Nexus,

During this student election you will be faced with a lot of choices, and while it may not matter much to most of you who gets elected, it will matter to many of you if you have to pay more to go to UCSB next year. Associated Students is asking you to pay $8 more each quarter as part of their “A.S. Initiative.” For you math majors out there, that’s $24 more a year.

All sorts of special interests have lined up to support the “Initiative.” All three A.S. parties (the Gauchoholics, Student Action Coalition and Campus Engagement Group) support the base fee. All three external vice president for statewide affairs candidates, while saying they want to lobby the regents to keep student fees low, support raising your fees by $24 to go into their own coffers. All sorts of campus groups, hoping to claim their share of the pot, have also lined up to mobilize your support of the $24 fee hike.

But do you really want to give A.S. more money? After all, this is an organization that squanders student money on field trips to learn about “Queer of Color Awareness” and travels to Washington, D.C. to lobby uncaring legislators to close down prisons. They spend student money on drag queen shows and porno mags (how can we forget the Herstory debacle?). They even lost almost a million dollars in A.S. capital reserves last year by not paying attention to their own investments, despite the broker’s repeated calls for action.

If you want to throw away your money, support the “A.S. Initiative.” But your money is only going to go to the same crap it always does. A.S. will tell you they are in a financial crisis; however, it is one of their own making. Send a message to A.S. this April by telling them you are no longer going to throw gasoline on the fire. A.S. does some great things too, but the only way to eliminate the frivolousness is to not give A.S. any more money UNTIL it reforms.

Last year when I ran, I promised not to raise your student fees. I kept my promise and was one of only three legislative council members to vote against the fee hike. I urge you not to support it either.

MARTIN DOYLE