It’s no secret that student involvement at Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC) isn’t the best. As Tim Gavan states in “Student Involvement Down due to Campus Location,” students here face problems and have responsibilities that many students at different universities just don’t come across—namely, commuting and commitments of campus. With the cost of living in the city, commuting and the poor economy, there are additional pressures on students to work for compensation—rather than join a student organization.

Some argue the real life and work experience students can get at a job might appear to be a much more efficient use of the little time we have, and a more attractive item to put down on our resumes. As Gabriela Mendez-Novoa reports in “Students and Faculty Discuss the Fairness of Non-Paid Internships,” with internships and jobs taking about 12-20 hours out of the week, and some even more than that, it’s extremely difficult—and for some, impossible—to also take advantage of on-campus activities.

The time and effort dedicated towards a student organization is just as valuable as work experience at a job or internship. Student clubs build individuals’ skills in communication, budget and task management, public relations and event planning. These skills are practical in any work setting and are exactly what students should have detailed in their resumes once they graduate. Showing employers that a student has spent time in a club throughout his college career proves that the student is devoted and that he has grown within the organization, increasing his chances of getting a job or internship.

With every e-board meeting and budget hearing, our club leaders work hard to accommodate our time and interests through their programming. Aside from its perks in building work experience, being an active member of Fordham’s campus is the perfect way to build a group of friends and colleagues that can support students for years to come.

That being said, almost all of us at The Observer hold either a part-time job on the side or an internship that takes up the rest of the time we have left after finishing our academic work. It’s a sad but true fact stemming from the economic situation we inherited as Millenials. It would be irresponsible for us to not take advantage of any opportunity to further our changes of securing a job post-graduation. Some of us are forced to get a part-time job to pay for Fordham’s tuition or build up reserves for the almost inevitable unemployment that awaits for us. And with a limited stock of hours in every day, something has to give. As editors, we have obviously weighed our options and decided that this club was worth our time, but not every student, or even a majority of the school, will agree. So although we obviously feel that there is value in club participation, given the circumstances of the world around us, we should not judge those who feel otherwise, no matter how “apathetic” our campus may feel.