Graduating seniors, as in years past, have the opportunity to donate money for the senior class gift. This year the Senior Class Council chose a landscaped stone planter to be built in the east quad just north of the Blanton student building. The Blanton building is the future home of student services and will be the main entrance for all future students.
The university gave the Senior Class Council a list of 10 items to decide on such as an endowment for Mustang Corral. The gifts typically cost between $20,000 and $25,000 dollars. Should the senior class fail to raise adequate funds, the university fronts the money to meet the difference.
Surely the university and the Senior Class Council could think of a more substantial gift that would benefit the university more? Twenty thousand dollars is a huge chunk of change to throw at a brick planter and some flowers – particularly since the university would no doubt landscape the east quad north of the Blanton building regardless of the senior gift. Editorial Board encourages the continuation of the senior gift, but would like to make a few suggestions for future graduating classes.
Twenty thousand dollars could go a long way toward endowing a scholarship at SMU, even if it would only amount to $500 a semester. With a tuition increase of 7.5 percent next year, every little bit helps.
And speaking of the tuition increase, why couldn’t the gift be donated toward the Dedman renovation? A new treadmill or weight machine would be more useful to students, faculty and staff than a landscaped planter that looks pretty.
One of the biggest complaints on campus is student apathy. Why not spend the money to sponsor a university-wide pep rally at a home football game – and we’re not talking a few balloons and some streamers. Give the money to Mustang Maniacs and earmark it for a rented tent on the boulevard, raffle prizes, free T-shirts and printed fliers of those SMU cheers so few of us have even heard? And advertise, advertise, advertise.
Or how about sponsoring a bus to a football or basketball away-game to TCU? Let’s re-ignite that cross-town rivalry and show the Horned Frogs “we’ve got spirit, yes we do, we’ve got spirit, how ’bout you?”
Editorial Board doesn’t want to discourage seniors from giving this year – a planter is still a way of leaving your mark. But Senior Class Council of 2004, take note: you should want to give back to the future students of this university, not just make it look nice.
