It’s a slap in the face when NIU wants donations from students when it hasn’t had the decency to listen to those same students about summer commencement.

That’s just what the school has been doing as the NIU Foundation set a Senior Challenge goal of $5,000 to raise from seniors not even out the door. Most students don’t have full-time jobs or even extra spending money before they graduate. Calling these students shows the university is more concerned about what it can get from graduating students than what it can give. It’s one thing to call (not harass) alumni–it’s another to prove to current students the school is only concerned with the all-important moolah.

This is not to say the projects supported by the annual Senior Challenge aren’t worthy ones. But the school should wait until seniors graduate and have time to reflect on their school experience before it comes to them with open palms.

This year’s Senior Challenge is especially disconcerting because of the Provost Office’s recent decision to cancel the summer commencement ceremony without any input from the people the change affects the most – students. It seems evident now that few faculty members were consulted either.

After the decision was announced, administrators ignored a petition signed by 200 people, even though this is almost half the number of students who walked in last year’s summer graduation ceremony. Even the Student Association’s vote disapproving the cancellation didn’t shake administrators’ resolve to follow through with the unpopular measure.

And now, as if students don’t already pay enough, NIU asks for more from those whose wishes it so conveniently ignored.

NIU’s students are its most important people. Campus administrators need to remember who pays their salaries.