It takes a whole college

With today's inflation, $4.73 won't cover many college students' expenses -- maybe a drink tab or a couple slices of pizza. \nTwenty-eight cents will cover even less -- not even a half hour of parking at the Main Library, should a student need to visit it before 10 p.m. \nAnd 6 cents isn't even enough to pay for one minute of a long distance phone call home. \nBut for some students, $4.73, 28 cents or even 6 cents could make the difference between surviving and failing the college experience.\nBefore spring break, a student committee submitted a plan to increase tuition fees for certain minority programs provided by the Health Center, Student Legal Services and Campus Child Care. \nFor example, with the mandatory $4.73 increase, the Health Center will hire a second psychiatrist, although less than 10 percent of the student body uses the University's psychiatric services, according to the center's reports. \nBut whether or not the majority actually uses this service, the University must still strive to improve it. \nLast year, a student attempted suicide by jumping from an eighth-floor window of Ballantine Hall. After miraculously surviving the fall, he told an Indiana Daily Student reporter in January that the onset of his state of panic occurred when he had to go to Franklin Hall to drop his entire schedule of classes. \n"When I saw that line that said 'Sign your name here,' I thought I was signing my life away," he said. \nThe financial, emotional and physical strain that college generates can greatly affect the mental health of a student. For the students who use the service, the University should do all it can to maintain a timely, affordable and quality service, so students don't have to wait weeks or pay hundreds of dollars at a private practice. \nOne psychiatrist for a campus of 40,000 students is not enough. When it comes to physical or mental health, most patients have the option of getting a second opinion, but up until this proposal, the students who can only afford University mental health services have not had that luxury. It's a shame that health care should ever be referred to as "a luxury."\nA 28-cent fee increase to benefit Student Legal Services and a 6-cent increase for Campus Child Care are among the other programs proposed to receive extra dollars. \nSure, not every student suffers from depression, needs an attorney or has to stack parenthood on top of textbooks. But for the few who do, the University should be bending over backward to make sure students with higher-than-average-hurdles have a chance to succeed in school and earn a degree.\nIU is a state school that has a responsibility to give more of the general public access to higher education. Some students barely make ends meet just to attend college, so the least IU can do is assure those students that, as part of this community, they're going to be taken care of if unexpected expenses related to their mental health, their rights and their families arise.\nUniversities shouldn't simply cater to the majority. This university in particular should repel the sink-or-swim mentality that other competing schools tout.\nAnd for those IU students who don't currently need these services, think of them as insurance. Someone else's $4.73, 28 cents or 6 cents could be your education's saving grace one day.