Every semester, a portion of all full-time students’ tuition money goes toward student activities, which include on-campus programming.

That $19.20 per semester allows student organizations to put on various programs and events on campus – events that students can attend for free or for a reduced price.

But is that money really being used efficiently?

Various student organizations spend their allocated activity money not only to put on their events but also to advertise and otherwise promote them. Often these organizations are rewarded with poorly attended events.

The truth is, most students are bogged down with class and work obligations and sometimes can barely even fit in time for a good night’s sleep, let alone time for going to on-campus events. Kent State also has a reputation of being a “suitcase campus,” meaning fewer students are here to attend activities on the weekend.

With that in mind, we think those organizations need to take a look at how they spend student money and make changes.

Now, we’re not saying organizations need to stop all their spending or stop putting on events altogether. After all, it’s always nice to have a break from working or studying.

But we do think these groups should start using student money more efficiently.

A good place to begin would be cutting back on some of the most poorly attended activities. For example, Kent Student Center Programming held a euchre tournament that only four employees attended, even though the organization spent money to promote it. That’s the type of event that could be scaled back.

Meanwhile, the bigger events – concerts and large-scale comedy shows – tend to draw thousands of students. If organizations used some of the money saved from smaller, poorly attended activities to draw national acts to campus, it’s likely the crowds would grow. It only makes sense to put money toward events that draw in larger audiences.

Kent State student organizations should also look at how other universities attract students to events and try to implement those tactics here. Other universities may have some of the same event attendance problems as Kent State, but they may also have solutions for those problems. If Kent State organizations use some of those solutions, perhaps they’ll begin spending our money more wisely.

Again, we don’t want student organizations to stop putting on events entirely, as that would make campus a lot less fun. We’d just like to see our money go to better use.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.