I’m glad that The Hatchet has brought to light the problem of the School of Media and Public Affairs fee. As an electronic media major, I’d like to say this $1,000 fee should be removed.

In your April 15 article (“Students dispute SMPA major fee”), you state that the equipment in the building includes: a “modern newsmaker studio,” a “building-wide fiber optic network,” a “teleconferencing classroom” and a “student media center equipped for print, broadcast and online research projects.”

I’d like to emphasize that electronic media students use only one of those services directly, and that this one service is open to all students. Many students within SMPA overlap into different programs.

I noticed that your article only focused on the journalism, political communication student and faculty responses. Not a single electronic media major or professor was interviewed.

We don’t use all of the equipment that the fees go towards. And not all electronic media students use the equipment each semester. In fact, there are only three required courses in the major that require usage of production equipment.

I think that The Hatchet pointed out an important problem, but next time follow through. Don’t let the University think that it’s the electronic media department that’s benefiting from all the tuition dollars. We’re just as unhappy with the fee as the rest of you.
-Devon Tutak
junior