January 27, 2012

In a few weeks, our university library will present a proposal for a student fee to the Missouri Students Association. MSA needs to approve it, and our entire university needs to learn from it and copy it.

As the proposal stands, the fee would be anywhere from 50 cents to $1 per academic credit hour, and it would be used to fund one of the most important infrastructures to any academic institution. It’s the library, where we study (cram), do homework, write papers, read and anything else necessary to attain that grade we want. The fee would allow the library to buy books, which it hasn’t been able to do since the state stopped funding it, and carry out maintenance as well as general improvements. The money might even be used to fund a 24-hour section for finals weeks.

Plus, when the cost of making sure that tool is in the best condition possible is about the equivalent of two Chipotle burritos per semester, there’s absolutely no reason anyone should be opposed to a student fee such as this.

Sure, it’s another fee we have to pay, but it is the most reasonable and useful student fee we’ll ever have to pay.

That is why MU as a whole needs to look at this proposal and see how its functionality can be applied to other areas. We’ve had to pay a lot of stupid student fees. If you need an example go to the St. Louis or Dickerson Park Zoo to see the $25,000 tiger habitats MSA is paying for over five years.

$1 dollar per credit hour from every student, that’s all it takes. This student fee proposal is an example of how small amounts of smartly-handled money can create large amounts of positive, effective change. This is a student fee we actually want, so the university needs to take advantage, and hopefully can continue to come up with even better proposals for the future.