In these troubling economic times, Cerritos College can’t afford to spend money to give out free things to its students.

Someone needs to have a serious conversation with the Cerritos College Board of Trustees and remind it that as the school continues to cut classes for what it says are reasons related to the state of the budget, now is not the best time to be spending money when it should be saving money.

It’s like a teenager who desperately wants a new car and has to save money to be able to afford it. That dream of buying that car would be impossible without saving.

Students don’t need things like free In-N-Out hamburgers. If the ASCC wants to welcome students to a new semester, why not pass that cost on to the student and actually make money rather than spend it?

If the goal of giving out free stuff is to build morale and create a positive atmosphere among students, there has got to be other ways; more cost effective ways to do so.

How about Cerritos College allow its students to vote on a faculty member that would represent a particular division within the school and have the students pay a few bucks to attempt to dunk them in a dunk tank.

That would be much cheaper, it would be fun for the students as well as the facility, and it would make the school some money.

Students can show up in mass to take advantage of receiving free things from the school but can’t show up in mass to support their schools sports teams.

Something seems wrong with that picture. Sporting events at Cerritos College are free unless a team makes it to the post season, so clearly the word “free” does nothing for the school or its students.

As a collective unit, all branches of Cerritos College need to lock down all spending that is not necessary to student learning.

It will be shocking how similar students respond not to mention how much more money is saved.