Every year, us students are greeted with another headline in the Justice annoucing tuition increases. Seniors and the administration might be the only people who get a kick out of these arbitrary increases in our already exhorbitant fees to Brandeis. Increases are often brushed off as they compare favorably" to other schools in the country. And, as students, we have little choice but to suck up and deal with whatever price the Board of Trustees puts on our next year of education. Of course, we could quit school or change to another equally unfair institution, but realistically we are stuck in in between the vice grips of some greedy academy no matter where we go. In the Justice's recent article online ("New budget includes 4.5 percent increase in tuition") numbers were given revealing some of the student services our money was going into. The money spent on students certianly does not add up to the $1,372 extra each of us will have to pay. Of course none of us should worry becuase there is still some "fine tuning"to be done, according to executtive VP Peter French. It's time we stop sheepishly going along with these arbitrary increases in the money we fork over to Brandeis, without knowing where it is all being spent. The school should put into writing a detailed budget that shows where every penny goes. It's time for us students to start demanding that we have a little more say over the money we spend. We should be the ones doing the "fine tuning"!

Eric Blasco
class of '06