Ed Board just learned that the senior gift to SMU will be a seal in the new Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports. Wait. Isn’t the Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports the senior gift from not only the class of 2005, but every class that is currently suffering from the 1.5 percent tuition increase?

To add injury to insult, alumni, including students whose tuitions helped fund the project, will have to pay to use the facility. What a great message for the university to send to their future alumni.

Because of the university’s nonchalant attitude regarding this matter, Ed Board believes that the senior gift should be something else.

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, seals aren’t an endangered species on campus. There are seals students aren’t supposed to walk on, seals people do walk on and even a misspelled seal.

With the abundance of SMU seals, Ed Board suggests that the Senior Class Council focus on giving something meaningful, not another seal.

Sure, from an aesthetic standpoint, the Dedman Center could benefit from having a seal at the entrance, but the onus should fall onto other donors (possibly the donors who are strangely absent from helping to fund the Dedman Center). Students have done their part for the Dedman Center with their thousands of tuition dollars.

Why should the senior class give a seal? To leave a mark on the university?

There are many other ways to leave not only a mark on the floor, but a meaningful symbol to help the students at this university.

How about more computers for the library? What about setting up a scholarship or an ongoing scholarship fund? No matter how small or how big, these items can assist future students and those currently enrolled.

Why not give something worthwhile instead of placing a seal within something the senior class has already helped pay for?

Who decided on giving a seal in the first place? There are four seniors on Ed Board and none of us remember being asked as to what we would give as a senior gift. No one asked our friends. No one asked strangers we spoke to in Hughes-Trigg. No email notifications, no little post cards delivered to our campus post office boxes. Nor would Ed Board be surprised if few other seniors were asked for their input.

Because of the lack of thought that went into giving a worthwhile senior gift, Ed Board is calling on seniors to refuse donating money until a better senior gift is settled on.