With the economy continuing to plummet, University President Pat Long has been forced to make some big decisions lately.

Perhaps the most difficult task at hand for Long is figuring out how to trim the university’s $42 million budget – by $3.5 million.

The most drastic cut Long is calling for will come from operating costs.

From this budget alone, the university already has managed to skim $2.7 million, nearly 75 percent of the necessary amount.

But now comes the difficult part: shaving off the remaining bucks.

Even Long has said that those remaining dollars will be the most difficult to come up with.

And once operating costs have been slimmed down to an unadjustable amount, Long has another difficult decision to make: figuring out where the rest of the money will come from.

So far, Long has remained steadfast in her campaign against cutting budgets that will directly affect students.

The president also has made it clear that she wants to avoid eliminating people and positions – also a commendable concept.

However, as students of a university, we undoubtedly will be the ones who pay the price.

Not only  is the university itself hurting, but people and families – donors – are hurting as well.

Donors aren’t giving, expenses are raising and students are caught in the crossfire.

It is our tuition that will be raised, our extra-curriculars that will be cut and our scholarships that slowly will be yanked because of the budget crunch Long is calling for.

At a university with a tuition that exceeds $20,000 a year, we have a right to demand that our experience at Baker not be tarnished because of a depleting economy.

After all, it is us who generate the dough that pays the bills and us who stay at this university year after year, tuition increase after tuition increase.