This fall, Fordham joined the ranks of 58 other private colleges and universities that cost their students over $50,000 a year. As Fordham’s costs initiate it into the $50,000 Club, the university has also cut funding to the library—a startling example of misplaced priorities. Because students are essentially investing $200,000 into their experience at the university over four years, we deserve the best academic resources for our money. Unfortunately that’s not always what we get.

Quinn Library no longer accommodates the students who binge-study into the wee hours of the morning. The two hours less of access to computers and printers for students who work late or do not own computers is not only inconvenient, but it undercuts the greater importance of the university as a learning environment. If our school can’t provide us with adequate study resources, who can?

As if the cut in library hours were not enough to frustrate a study routine, the poorly functioning printers add to students’ stress. Nevermind how long they take to print; the library’s Macs are the only computers that open Mac documents and, inconveniently, they are also the only ones that are not capable of printing.

I will not excuse the disconnected Macs as symptoms of the global economic slowdown. Although copying, pasting and reformatting to Windows is not the end of the world, it begs the question: why do we have these expensive, shiny computers in the library if they are not connected to printers?

Also shiny and useless are the flatscreen televisions installed in the library and in the Lowenstein building’s cafeteria two years ago. In the cafeteria, where one TV would be more than enough, there are two flatscreens side by side, playing muted CNN and Fordham news.

People can physiologically only watch one of those screens at once and, given the choice, most would watch CNN. Fordham news channel, with its unrelenting maroon background and ignorable news alerts, agitates most people to the point that they won’t even raise their eyes to look at it. Because I and everyone else only use the library and cafeteria’s flatscreens to check the time, they basically function as really, really expensive clocks.

Ironically, it was not until this year that Fordham installed flatscreens where someone actually watches them—at security desks. The new screens give guards a more omniscient view of campus access and egress. Those are tuition dollars well spent.

The United Student Government (USG) at Rose Hill has already successfully reinstated late hours to Walsh Library. In a perfect world, Fordham College at Lincoln Center would auction off some flat screens to fund the extension of library hours or to pay someone to repair the Macs to full functioning potential.

Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect world, where a tradeoff of this kind is unlikely to be made. For a $200,000 education, Fordham students can afford to go without flatscreens, but they cannot afford to go without full library hours.

By reinstating their library hours, Rose Hill’s USG took great initiative in getting the best value from their tuitions and keeping the university’s prioritites in check. They also set the precedent of reversing an inappropriate budget cut.

Lincoln Center’s USG is moving in the right direction, making it their main goal to reinstate the old library hours. Rose Hill’s USG demanded the most of their expensive tuitions. Lincoln Center students can and should follow suit.