It was a promise, and a very good one at that.

The students’ part of the deal was simple – we’ll make the Student Activity Fee mandatory for all students, and up the price. In return, the administration will keep the Marino Center doors open longer, give us more club sports and most importantly, begin the process of building a stadium that is closer than Brookline.

It’s been two years, and we haven’t forgotten. Where’s the stadium, Northeastern?

Judging from recent homecoming festivities, the student body deserves a new facility. On a campus accustomed to ho-hum enthusiasm for that greatest of fall Saturday collegiate traditions – the tossing of the pigskin. It was unbelievable. The first sellout at Parsons Field in years, a contagious sense of school spirit and thousands of Huskies rushing to celebrate a victory, is nothing to be overlooked. We’ve done our part, and more.

We’ve bought the Northeastern sweatshirts from the bookstore. We’ve begun wearing those semi-dorky, albeit well-intentioned, Diehard Dogs T-shirts made available by the Student Government Association. We’ve participated in the homecoming parade, begun caring about who is crowned Mayor of Huntington Avenue and stomached the long shuttle ride to Parsons Field in Brookline.

Now it’s your turn.

“[The fee] is a tremendous sign of support from the students, it’s wonderful,” said Athletic Director Dave O’Brien in the July 21, 2004 edition of The News. That was at a time when the stadium appeared a reality. If the students put up with a minor inconvenience, a $45 per semester activities fee, there will be a stadium. So where does it stand now? Two years later, it’s a different story.

“We haven’t really invested in athletic facilities, we recognize the need for new facilities, the students recognize the need to make it happen,” O’Brien said in the June 21, 2006 edition of the News. “It’s on everyone’s radar screen and we’re working on that. We’re confident there is going to be a multipurpose facility in the future, but the timetable is unclear.”

Haven’t really invested? The students sure have, in money and in spirit, and to not have made any progress is absurd. Since the fee was raised, a full-time student enrolled at Northeastern has already paid $225 ($45 a semester, for Fall 2004-Fall 2006).

Students are still paying, and the stadium’s future has never been more obscure. We’re fronting $10 million, and for some older students on campus, they could graduate before seeing even a glimmer of hope for a stadium.

What Northeastern student wouldn’t want that money back? Then again, what Northeastern student wouldn’t want a stadium?