As election time for the Undergraduate Student Government rolls around, one nagging question well not leave me alone; the dining halls. Although the dining halls and USG do not seem to have much in common, they do.

Quite simply, the dining commons are overpriced. Although it might appear that one pays $2.10 for a dinner that costs 210 points, this is not true. Including the $560 kitchen fee everyone pays at the beginning of the semester, 210 points actually ranges from $5.32 with plan five to $8.13 with plan one.

A meal in the commons for $8.13! Even $5.32 is exorbitant. Are we forgetting that this is institutional food, not only the worst tasting but also supposedly the cheapest around?

At $5.32 a meal, a person can eat better tasting food, more cheaply, in most restaurants. How can Food Services fail to compete economically with downtown establishments when it forces thousands of students to eat at its halls every day?

Wouldn't it be nice to see where all this money is going to? It doesn't seem to be going toward good food.

This is where USG comes in. I want to see where my money goes. I want an open budget. Is it too much to ask where all my money disappears?

Maybe it is. From past action, it doesn't seem that the administration is about to just open the budget (especially for Food Services) for everyone to look at. And, of all the tickets running in the current USG election, Brad Haartz and Doug DeLong are the only candidates who have even mentioned the open budget.

This isn't necessarily an endorsement of Haartz/DeLong, it just seems a shame that the other six tickets for USG have somehow decided that students are willing to blindly pay what the University demands without caring where the money goes. This isn't true, at least in my case.

I hope Haartz/DeLong win or the others change their minds, so that at least we have a chance of finding out.