Editor, Daily Nexus,

I tend to follow the news at UCSB regularly. Since my UCSB diploma has afforded me the opportunity to have gainful employment, I now pay an abhorrent amount in taxes to the state of California. Thus, I was quite interested in the news that UC undergraduate students are facing a possible 7 percent fee hike.

The University of California Student Association and A.S. reps like Bill Shiebler are up in arms about this – and they should be. According to figures provided by the University of California, average fees are currently $6,850 for 2006-2007. If I were still in school I would be upset at having to pay another $480.

This becomes an interesting juxtaposition when one considers the fact that it was Shiebler and many of his A.S. cronies who fought to raise student fees by about $300 last quarter. It prompts one to ask why one fee is acceptable and another isn’t.

The answer is simple: A.S. is using the student body as its piggy bank to fund the pet projects of its members and its members’ friends. A.S. is fine with raising student fees by 4 percent when they will fund an organization that wants to legalize marijuana or send a single student to a conference that will benefit almost no one (other than the student whose expenses are now covered by your money).

If A.S. and the UCSA truly cared about students, they would use their recent windfall to offset any future fee hikes. Instead, A.S. is doing things like attempting to turn the Nexus into its own propaganda mill. I sincerely hope that students remember these actions when the next round of elections takes place.