There are two referenda on this year's Associated Students of Madison ballot. One of them could cost students nearly $200 a year for the next three decades.

In an effort to renovate the Memorial Union and rebuild Union South, the Wisconsin Union Directorate will ask students to sign off on an extravagant payment plan that will increase segregated fees by up to $96 per semester for as many as 30 years. With students already forced to pay more than $650 a year in segregated fees on top of an ever-rising tuition, this tax hike is simply too much for the student body to bear.

Tuition currently stands at $5,618 a year for Wisconsin residents and $19,618 for out-of-state students. Should the Union referendum pass, the total cost of a UW education will rise to $6,476 ($20,476 out-of-state) — and that figure does not take into account the seemingly inevitable annual tuition hike, which could be fairly high thanks to an unfriendly Legislature.

Skyrocketing tuition costs have already threatened to price students out of a UW education, and segregated fees only add to the burden. With students working part-time jobs on top of a full course load only to graduate thousands of dollars in debt, an exorbitant segregated fee hike will further drain bank accounts that have already been stripped bare.

From March 28-30, students will be asked to raise the price of an education for the next three decades of UW students. We urge you to vote "No."