Back in the halcyon days of our youth, many of us used to operate lemonade stands on summer afternoons. We'd buy some Country-Time mix, drag a card table out into the front yard and set up shop. On a good day, we'd pull in a couple dollars in pocket change from kind pedestrians passing by. We'd put that cash in the bank and save it for the proverbial rainy day.

But what if our parents had made us use our small windfall to pay for our share of the household's food? What if mom had said, "Junior, if you want your macaroni and cheese tonight, you'll have to hand over that buck-seventy-five." Thankfully, this never happened to us, but it perfectly captures the spirit of the student-College dynamic with regard to the construction of a new student center.

This past week the Undergraduate Council voted to allocate $25,000, the bulk of its lemonade money, toward the funding of a new building to house extracurricular organizations and serve as a center for student life. This decision came after surveying undergraduates on the question of how the money should be spent. The council's decision accurately reflects the wishes of their constituents and for this they should be commended. The University, a negligent parent indeed, should be ashamed.

By its stubborn inaction, the administration has forced us to delve into our own meager resources to provide what by all measures is a necessity. Our $25,000 could have been used to do so much good on campus. Instead, it must serve as a symbolic drop in the bucket, but the University's negligence has left us no choice. We must have a student center, and if these are the sort of measures we have to take to get the University to open up its purse-strings, so be it.

The question now is how best to exploit our donation for maximum impact. We would like to see the $25,000 broken down into bags of pennies and deposited on the steps of University Hall. Maybe Dean Lewis will finally take note if he trips over a mound of our cash on his way to work.