With all the pressures college students have, the government reading their e-mail shouldn't be one of them.

A new proposal by the federal government is attempting to make hundreds of institutions across the nation — universities, cities and online communication companies — modify their networks to make them more accessible for surveillance purposes by spring of 2007.

Institutions are being forced to make these modifications and will have to pay for it. Students will be sure to bear the brunt of the cost through higher tuition. An estimate for the lowest standards of compliance would force most American universities to raise tuition by an average of $450.

This is ridiculous.

Citizens shouldn't have to pay to be spied on by the government, much less be spied on at all. Big Brother is attempting to restrain free expression and speech, again.

It's a scary idea. Since when did college students become potential terrorists? Government officials will be privy to students' innermost thoughts and information. We'll basically be paying someone to look over our shoulder.

The government has the right to wiretap those who are suspected of crimes. The current method they employ — setting up the necessary equipment at a specific access point that the suspect frequents — should be enough.

Methods for catching terrorists can be improved, but not by opening every single e-mail from students and employees hoping to catch something that might not even be there.

These new measures are overblown and unnecessary. While the U.S. Department of Justice contends such moves are necessary to fight crime and terrorism, they amount to more. They are part of an ongoing assault on civil liberties in this country that started with the passage of the USA Patriot Act.

Luckily, the American Council on Education, or ACE, the nation's largest association of colleges and universities, is challenging the order. And it should be challenged.

Colleges and universities are academic institutions and need to be treated as such.

A consistent ability for outside parties to access private Internet communications isn't acceptable, even outside of universities.

Whether it is opposed on the grounds that the requirement must be funded by the federal government or spying on college students is wrong doesn't matter. As long as it falls through, it doesn't matter how.

Still, the ACE should recognize that this law is much more than an unfounded mandate. It would expand the level of control the government has in people's everyday lives.

It's not right for civil liberties to be compromised, even if the government pays for it or not.