In these woeful days of budget crunches and cutbacks in all arenas of state and local government, departments all across campus are seeking to tighten their belts. Students returned this fall to find larger classes, fewer class offerings, tighter space in University Housing and heftier tuition bills.

We’ve rehashed many of these points again and again to the point that we’re not only sick of talking about them but a bit sick of worrying about them. So when we hit the SERF in an attempt to burn some of the additional stress that goes along with publishing a student daily at long hours for low pay; the Cineplex we’ll soon find there seems a bit out of line. The SERF is now prepared to install five plasma-screen televisions at $4,200 apiece using segregated fees.

Stressful as these economic times may be, at least students get the chance to unwind and work out in front of $21,000 worth of, well, TV. So much for sweatin’ to the oldies. If it is a movie we want, last we heard, there were a few other options around town. Save our hard-earned student tax dollars so we can sweat a bit less over our tuition bills, not our treadmills.