TCU students will spend an estimate of $59,370 annually, according to TCU’s admission website.

This includes, of course, living on campus, as well as utilizing the TCU health insurance. Still, annual tuition for the 2015-2016 school year alone comes out to $40,630.

That is a hefty amount of money. It’s reasonable that students will occasionally grumble about steep tuition prices.

However, a strange phenomenon occurs when students are given the opportunity to voice their opinions about how their money is being spent.

They don’t show up.

On Tuesday, March 17, the Student Government Association hosted an open forum inviting students to hear and participate in how SGA plans to spend its approximately $700,000 budget.

Not a single non-SGA student showed up to the forum.

Some students said they felt their voices aren’t strong enough to be heard in regards to what organizations spend.

But according to SGA President Cody Westphal, the students’ voice is much stronger than we think.

“We take our responsibility of allocating the student body fee very seriously,” Westphal said. “It is of pinnacle importance that we do our best to make sure it’s a budget that serves everyone.”

“That’s why we offer the forum, to allow every student to see the proposed budget and bring any question or idea to the treasurer.”

Chancellor Victor Boschini and other faculty members hosted a town hall meeting for students Tuesday at the Brown-Lupton University Union.

Seven students showed up.

Again, students had a unique opportunity to talk to the chancellor himself about the future of TCU, and few students took advantage of it.

Boschini joked about the turnout, saying that it was a great opportunity to get to know each student by name and “give them a hard time.”

The Editorial Board agrees that while having an opinion about the amount of tuition and administrative spending is important, it is not acceptable to have negative opinions about these issues without utilizing open events regarding TCU budgets.

Our voices, like Westphal said, are much stronger than we might like to believe. If students think that a particular organization is not using a portion of our tuition correctly, they have the ability to say that.

It is important that we not only use but also take advantage of these assemblies that directly address what we all like to complain about: our money.

Academics Editor Tori Whitley for the editorial board.