It is time to move on.

The more than 50 students who attended the meeting to show their opposition to the athletic fee should be commended for their participation. Unfortunately their opposition comes about one year too late.

Despite an agreement between student leaders, SIUC Chancellor Don Beggs and SIU President Ted Sanders, the SIU Board of Trustees mandated in the summer that there will be an $80 increase over a four-year period.

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The agreement between students and administrators was to increase the fee $20 for one year and study all future increases. That agreement, however, was made moot by the board’s decision to fully fund the increase all four years. Beggs could have conducted a study, but why study future increases when those increases are already on paper.

Anyone who attended the board meeting in June assumed there would be no reductions in the fee. The members on the board had spoken and essentially told Sanders, Beggs, and students the agreement be damned, athletics will be funded fully. But student leaders and administrators did not stop fighting.

Beggs sharpened his pencil, went through the Athletic Department’s budget line by line eliminating superfluous spending and ultimately reduced the fee by $20. This is a clear victory for students and far surpasses the benefits that any study could have accomplished.

Even with the fee increase, SIUC still will be cheaper than ISU, who currently has the top men’s basketball team in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Many complain about spending money for activities they do not utilize. The federal government spends money in a variety of ways that are unpopular with the public, but people cannot simply stop paying taxes.

The benefits to the fee increase are three-fold. First, the Athletic Department will begin to reduce its deficit, which is important to future plans.

Second, the money used will bring more money from the NCAA in the future. This extra money will be used for scholarships to bring athletes to SIUC who could improve the quality of the teams.

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Finally, when the athletic teams begin improving, more SIUC alumni will become interested in the University and possibly donate money that can improve other programs on campus.

No one likes paying extra fees, including the members of the Daily Egyptian Editorial Board, but we are realists and recognize a victory when one is attained.

It is time to worry about more pressing issues, such as landlord-tenant relations, academic advisement and technology improvement. Many people complain about athletics compromising academics, but the same people who protested the fee increase did not show up to USG’s academic advisement focus groups or to the student forums with the chancellor finalists.

The fee was reduced, which should be viewed as a victory. But the most recent challenge came too late. The fee has been set and we should now focus on issues with which we can make a difference.