Fox News Channel, added to campus cable lineups shortly after war began with Iraq, will soon vanish from MSU screens.

The channel, which will finish running on May 2, was a temporary addition to the lineup, said Doug Owen, who manages cable television for University Housing.

He said there were two reasons for choosing Fox News over other 24-hour news network.

"We've had requests from students specifically for Fox News and also we were able to add the channel to the lineup for no extra cost," Owen said.

The university coordinates all of the channels received by the dorms, but they buy those channels from the cable provider Comcast.

Due to budget limitations, the university would ordinarily swap channels - a new one for an old one. Owen explained that it would cost somewhere between 7 and 15 cents per customer on top of whatever Comcast would charge to add another channel.

"These channels can run pretty expensive," he said. "I'm sure students would like to keep the channel permanently, but everything we do is based on board dollars."

Matthew Thome, communications chair for the MSU College Republicans, said members of the group who live on campus have appreciated the addition of a more conservative news channel.

"A lot of members in the group choose Fox News," he said. "I personally like the coverage, it's definitely more opinionated than other stations."

Thome said Fox News has not given these students any more to base their discussions or functions on, but he said it provides a more balanced view of what's going on in the world.

"They should keep this channel," he said. "This is one more outlet students can get information from."

But students such as English sophomore Rachel Morrison never noticed the channel wasn't always part of the lineup.

"I do watch Fox News for war coverage," Morrison said. "But it's not because it's necessarily better than CNN, it's usually just the first news channel I come across."

Business and prelaw freshman Marquita Glenn said she won't miss the channel next year either.

"News is something that I watch," she said. "But having more than one station telling you the same thing you just heard two seconds ago is not productive."