During the past month, a few changes at Ohio State have made me ponder the definition of the word “right,” specifically when it is used as an adjective defining a positive state.
The university recently opened its new Ohio Union. This has created what will eventually become a $62 per quarter charge for each of OSU’s students, giving the university roughly $3 million more each quarter. Over a student’s four years, he or she will pay about $720 for the Union.
But we students don’t hand over cash to the university. We use credit instead. Depending on how quickly students pays off their loans, they could actually be paying more than a thousand dollars during their college career for the university’s new building.
Was the Union the “right” thing for the school? What is the definition of “right”?
The school has also chosen to increase tuition. How much more do students pay because of that extra fee?
After much thought, I realized the ship for these discussions had already sailed. I should instead be asking if the new Union and the increased tuition are the “right” decision for me.
No, I don’t want to pay more money than I already do for school, and I don’t think anybody does either. But in all fairness, we students at OSU have it pretty easy. In-state OSU students will still pay less for four years of school than many students at private schools. We have a nice campus and very good professors. Besides, we get to cheer for some of the best athletic teams in the nation.
The lesson that I learned from these ponderings is simple: Choose your battles wisely. Worrying about the charge of the Union wouldn’t be very productive for me. Neither would it be productive for me to worry about the increase in tuition, either. What would I do, transfer? Then I’d be paying more for tuition, plus I’d have to be in school longer, adding even more money to my total college bill.
So, what is “right” for me, for OSU and my fellow tens of thousands of OSU students?
The only thing I can say with certainty is that it would be right for me and others to pay attention to what our school is planning for the future and do what we can influence the school as much as we can on those plans.
We can’t tear down the Union, or even take away the quarterly Union fee. But we can help ensure that OSU students in the years to come won’t have to deal with similar situations.
How nice would it have been if the OSU students of past could have been so vocal that the school wouldn’t have added the quarterly Union charge to our tuition. I would have been very grateful.
Let’s work together as a student body, and ensure that the “right” decisions are made for our university’s future. In my opinion, that’s the only right thing to do.
