In light of the 7 percent increase in tuition next year to pay for a new athletic center most current students will never see -although alums can use the facilities, for a price – it seems inevitable that more students will have to work more hours to help cover the growing cost of their education.

With schedules getting more crowded and the day remaining a paltry 24 hours long, Editorial Board wanted to take this opportunity to evaluate the time constraints facing students today.

In a given week, there are 168 hours to fill with sleep, work, school, studying, eating and all the other distractions a college student experiences. At 8 hours of sleep a night, that leaves 112 hours empty.

Now subtract the 15 hours of class time a week the average student must be enrolled in to graduate in four years. In addition, subtract the three hours of out-of-class time per hour of in-class time SMU recommends students spend a week studying.

That’s right, SMU recommends you spend an additional 45 hours outside of class studying every week.

We are down to 52 hours of ‘free time’ left.

For many students, anywhere from 15 to 45 hours a week are spent working to supplement any income they may receive from family, scholarships, grants or loans. Let’s average that amount, shall we? That’s 30 hours of work a week.

That leaves 22 hours a week for students to eat, to shower, to commute (if need be), to run errands, to do laundry and to send out resumes and apply for jobs so 20 years down the road SMU can proudly claim that you, CEO of Such-and-such Corporation, is a graduate.

And then they can hit you up for money.

Never mind all of the extracurricular activities SMU encourages students to be involved in; never mind all those things your parents fooled you into thinking college was about: the dates, the parties and the friendships.

I mean come on, it’s college, it’s not supposed to be fun.

But Editorial Board isn’t bitter.

We’re just tired.