While midnight breakfast fees may only pinch our wallets, the newly proposed student fee will break the bank.

Will a $100 increase in student fees make our new student center magically appear? No. It will, however, make a difference to students and parents.

If the new fee is enforced, will it ever go back to the current $218 fee? Doubtful. Once the building is complete, the extra money will likely go toward its maintenance and upkeep, much like a portion of student fees currently go to maintain BSC.

It’s logical that student fees will increase over time. Unfortunately, this $100 increase will raise the bar for future Simpson generations much higher – so they’ll continue to pay more and more in fees.

Simpson should look elsewhere to raise funds before it makes donations mandatory from its students. With a concentrated effort, President Byrd could set fund raising in the right direction for all of Simpson’s projects – that is, he could focus the college on raising money within the community, not the student body.

This shift to “fund raising” by charging students more to attend Simpson is hard to accept. For every current Simpson student, there is at least one alumni or parent who’s making more than a minimum-wage college worker.

One way to see significant tangible results would be to educate alumni and other college supporters about Simpson’s latest projects. Give people a concrete reason to donate and they’re more likely to do so.

While the college should start its fund-raising efforts with alumni, parents and other supporters, it’s not entirely unreasonable for students to help out. But there are a lot of ways the student body can donate other than a required student-fee hike. For starters, this year’s senior-class present could be a sizeable donation to the new student center instead of a new exercise bike.

Perhaps students would be less opposed to the increase if it were smaller. Student leaders should consider lowering the fee significantly. Twenty-five extra dollars a year seems – and is – a lot more reasonable for self-supporting college students.

Ask us for money when the Simpson experience has paid off – when we’re wealthy alumni, not poor college students.