Penn State is an academic Mecca in Pennsylvania. Subsequently, the Penn State Board of Trustees seems loath to offer students a bargain price for a college education.

Friday, the Penn State Board of Trustees voted to increase room and board rates by nearly 5 percent for the 2006-07 school year, the latest increase in a volley of cost-raising measures sustained by cash-strapped students.

Rates for standard undergraduate on-campus double rooms will increase $95 per semester, from $1,715 to $1,810. At the November 2004 meeting, the board raised the cost of a standard double room $90 from $1,625 to $1,715 per semester.

The board's rationale for burdening students is, in part, the rising cost of fuel. In past a Daily Collegian article, "Pa. electricity costs capped," Oct. 17, Office of Physical Plant spokesman Paul Ruskin said the university pays low, in-bulk prices for its electricity and was able to lock in low prices for coal heating.

What, then, accounts for this incongruity between the board's reason for room and board hikes and explanation for keeping fuel prices at bay?

It, logically, seems that the board believes Penn State's students will endure these increases as part and parcel of the price of higher education. The board's response is unacceptable: raise already sky-high prices for students.

As appealing as this option may be for the board, there remains another answer. Cut the fat. Cut the wasteful spending. Cut the unnecessary programs.

The university can conserve by encouraging students and employees to turn off needless lighting inside dorms and classrooms around campus, for example.

Penn State's Undergraduate Student Government should do its part and prod the university to spare students increases wherever possible.

Tinges of this proposition have spilled into the debate. For instance, USG will sponsor Wednesday's Extend the Freeze rally, which advocates a tuition freeze at University Park, too, as has been advocated at Commonwealth Campuses. But it is curious that USG President Galen Foulke, who sits as a member of the board, has not decried the increases. On the contrary, he called them "very fair" in yesterday's Daily Collegian article, ""University raises housing prices."

Where is the president's advocacy of student concerns? Where is his sense of outrage at the expensive cost of a Penn State education?

There is always a sense of urgency and haste with which the board passes increases, as if to dismiss any other available option. The best option should be the one with students' interests in mind: keeping costs for Penn State students as low as possible.