The Brown & White

The recent hike in tuition brings the total undergraduate cost of attending Lehigh to $47,320. While this increase is brought about by many factors (including the addition of educational programs), energy costs was cited as a major reason.

Lehigh's campus is covered with old buildings that cost a lot of money to heat and cool. Due to security reasons, lights in most of these buildings must be left on at all times, which adds to energy costs. Lehigh's transportation system is not energy efficient. The list goes on and on.

Many student organizations have been working to encourage Lehigh to become environmentally friendly. While Lehigh has made some changes, such as adding energy-efficient light bulbs to buildings, Lehigh is hesitant to spend the money it takes to make major changes.

Let's face it, within the next 10 years, there will be more strict regulations for emissions, greater fines for not adhering to these regulations and the price per barrel of oil will continue to rise. And, all of these major decisions will be made by the next president - so instead of just complaining about the tuition, it might be worthwhile to research each candidate's stance on the environment.

Lehigh just pulled $3 million dollars out of the endowment to renovate the financial aid programs and help low-income families. Maybe it is time to pull some money to help deter energy costs.

The tuition will only continue to increase, and even though it may no longer affect low-income families (because of the new financial aid plan), it will hurt middle-class families who barely miss the cut for financial aid.

Lehigh needs to bite the bullet and take the costs to improve our campus now, because the amount of money it will take to make Lehigh environmentally friendly will only continue to increase exponentially for the future.