Unless you’ve been living under a rock or were blown away to Oz this last week, you have probably heard by now that 10 positions were laid off across Simpson’s campus.

This piece is not to belittle those who are working countless hours and making tough decisions about the budget, but to try to offer one student’s voice and opinion for those tough decisions.

In the piece that was published last week on Tuesday concerning the budget and layoffs, it was clear that while there were layoffs happening, other projects are still going to be pursued.

Do I agree with this decision? No.

Do I understand that there are two different “accounts” that money is taken from and that the account faculty is paid from differs from the account for projects?

Yes. I fully understand that they are two different funds.

Let me make myself clear. I love Simpson College. I believe that we needed a new track.

We badly needed a new student center. However, do we really need nine acres of land?

I know that many students, faculty, staff and administration reading this will be frustrated-saying that we need to remain optimistic and look forward to the future of Simpson.

But what about Simpson now?

I believe in this school. I believe that we can overcome this, and I believe in its future. However, I believe that by solely focusing on the future we will fail.

We cannot just look forward to the future and hope to get there.

So, in speaking from the present, we just let go of five faculty members. A group of people made decisions about who to let go in departments that students know the ins and outs of.

We know who’s on tenure track, we know what faculty members are tenured and, whether the administration wants to hear it or not, we know what faculty members aren’t up to par.

It’s a tough decision to make-deciding which faculty member stays and which one leaves. And I’ve been told that performance of the teacher was not taken into account.

Why didn’t you take in to account performance reviews? Isn’t that partially the reason that students do reviews at the end of the semester, so that you can go back and review them in a time like this?

So instead of taking into consideration performance reviews and letting go professors who, perhaps, aren’t up to par and who students aren’t seeing as beneficial to the college-how are you deciding who you lay off?

Like I said, I understand that decisions had to be made and that they weren’t easy. I will also reiterate that I believe in this school and that Simpson College has something unique to offer to students all over this country.

That being said, we need to focus on now and rebuilding this college now, rather than being overwhelmed with future projects that may or may not happen.

Katie is a senior multimedia journalism major and English minor. She is editor-in-chief of the newspaper, a member of Omicron Delta Kappa and destination leader.