Like the rest of us, Amanda Ebner (junior-chemical engineering) and her boyfriend, Mike, had one last weekend before classes were scheduled to start, and they wanted to enjoy it watching a Penn State football game.

It didn't happen.

Amanda and Mike sat at home during the game because they thought ticket takers wouldn't let Mike, a student at Robert Morris, into the stadium.

But the ticket takers are not to blame for this. They have to follow athletic department instructions: no Penn State student ID+, no $20 credit on your ticket ... no football game.

Mike, of course, doesn't have a Penn State ID. Worse yet, Mike missed the deadline to pay the $20 to get a student ticket validated for non-student use.

"You have to do it by Friday 4 p.m.," Amanda said, "I moved in Friday at seven."

The worst news for Mike and Amanda is, this time, they probably could have gotten into the game. Ticket office officials said they were lenient last weekend, but said for the rest of the season the policy would be strictly followed.

Bad news for Mark Parrish (senior-mechanical engineering). He's brought his older brother to games in past seasons, but it's going to be more costly this year.

"He was excited when I decided to come here," Parrish said. "If your brother comes to visit, of course you want to take him to a game without having to pay so much."

Most Penn State students seem to feel the same way as Parrish about the new policy. At the football game last weekend, I asked 50 students how they felt about the policy. The results: five said they were "OK" with the policy, the remaining 45 compared it to the excrement of various barnyard animals.

This year the athletic department is also armed with a new excuse for their new policy. The $20 fee, they say, is charged because people who are not Penn State students should have to pay the same $40 that the public is forced to shell out.

What the athletic department doesn't realize -- or could care less about -- is buying student tickets at face value isn't easy. While the public can buy tickets directly from the athletic department, the only option for a student wishing to bring a friend to a game is to buy a ticket from another student or -- even worse -- a scalper. And we all know you aren't likely to get that ticket for much less than $30 -- especially for the bigger games.

The problems the new ticket policy creates for students don't stop there. As Amanda and Mike found out, the tickets have to be validated for non-student-use the day before the game at the latest.

"What if your friend surprises you on Friday night?" said Mathew Kepler (senior-industrial health and safety). "What should you say? Sorry?"

A disturbing trend is developing: the athletic department acts more and more like they are doing students a favor by simply letting them into the football games. In 2000, with the football team struggling, the athletic department told fans they should not boo during the game. And by lining the field with police officers following a game, they rob from Penn State students the sacred college football tradition of tearing down the goalposts after a big win, which is done at almost every other big football school in the country.

And then there was last season, when the athletic department was dissolute enough to name America's greatest tragedy as an excuse to check IDs.

Said director of sports information Jeff Nelson in August 2002: "With 9/11 issues in safety and security, we're trying to be more proactive in making sure that those with student tickets are indeed Penn State students."

"Now that you have to pay $20, it shows its not a security issue," Parrish said. "It's about making more money."

And the fact is security never was the issue.

When the athletic department started talking about checking student IDs, they probably liked the idea of stopping a few people from buying student tickets from scalpers instead of the athletic department ticket office. But when they realized this policy didn't make much of a dent in ticket revenue, they had to come up with something that would. Hence, the $20 fee.

The athletic department needs to remember fans are more than little sheep flocking to the stadium on Saturdays; they are customers purchasing the tickets that make Penn State athletics possible.

And fans should be the ones to remind them. If you don't like the new policy, let president Graham Spanier (president@psu.edu) or the athletic department know and help them brush up on their customer service skills. I'm not Gallup, but my poll suggests 90 percent of you don't like the ticket policy. If that's anywhere near true, that's the kind of strength in numbers characteristic of a grassroots movement.

Don't be afraid to speak up and have someone hear your voice.

If not for yourself, then do it for your friends and family, who all they want to do is spend some quality time visiting you at school and watch a football game.