Tuition is being raised 2 percent for 2015-2016, and as a result, our hopes and expectations for the upcoming academic school year correlate, respectively.

We recognize that this increase is modest, and compared to the national average of 2.2 percent, we will go so far as to say that it is reasonable. But when Loyola students choose to continue paying these inflated tuition prices, we expect our wants and needs to be met. Our opinions matter.

In the 2013-2014 school year, 17  Loyola employees were laid off, 12 faculty members’ contracts were not renewed and 46 faculty and staff elected to take the volunteer severance package. Loyola prides itself in its low student to teacher ratio, but students have already begun to see increases in the size of their classrooms. We want to keep our professors and staff members. They make Loyola great.

We want expanded counseling services. We cannot expect three counselors and one psychiatrist to meet the needs of 4,496 enrolled students and the entirety of our faculty and staff. Students’ mental health cannot suffer in this environment if we are expected to strive for academic excellence. Certain needs must be met first, and these needs include mental health and well-being.

We are also calling for expanded Student Health Services. For many students, Student Health is their only access to medical care. Therefore, it is imperative that students can receive immediate medical care at their convenience and that Student Health Services be equipped to handle all of the medical needs of Loyola students, faculty and staff.

We want handicap accessible entrances to all building entrances on-campus. We want to create an environment that is open and inclusive to all.

Students whose work-study was cut want their jobs back. Many students do not have the time or resources to outsource jobs, and work-study served as an essential pool of income for these students.

We want the deficit to be fixed. We do not want the stress that comes with being a student to be coupled with the stress of worrying about whether our degrees will continue to be valuable and relevant in years to come. We want Loyola to be a standing, continually growing, ever-evolving institution. We do not want to be the ones to watch it fall.

We want transparency. We want access to the ins and outs of the administration’s doings. We want comprehensive and understandable reports of what our tuition is going towards. We do not want to seek them out; rather, we believe that they should be freely given to us.

We want the administration to be able to look beyond the wants and needs of the student body that are explicitly expressed above and to be receptive to those that may not be immediately articulated. We want to be allowed to provide input about how our money is being spent, but we do not want to have to be the ones to facilitate these conversations. The administration should be proactive in their attempts to engage with the student body, not the other way around.

If our student retention rate is as low as it is, then we should reevaluate current strategies and ensure that we are doing everything within our power to help Loyola reach its highest potential, which is where the strategic plan comes in. We must adhere to it and continue to strive to reach beyond the parameters it explicitly outlines.

We want these things because we love Loyola. Every year, we choose to be here instead of enrolling somewhere else, because we have faith in this institution and the principles it stands for. We want these things because we do not mind paying extra, so long as our university is correspondingly willing to go the extra mile.