Salmon swim upstream, the earth travels around the sun and Marquette's service is adequately provided for. One of these statements is false. Yet Marquette's administration would much sooner adopt Aristotle's model of the universe than admit its shortcomings in supporting service at Marquette. Attention, administrators: Marquette service won't run itself. It's about time you wake up.

Service at Marquette is underfunded, unorganized and, ultimately, unrespected. Though many service programs are already present, the administrative support of these programs is all but nonexistent.

Surely, you say, the concern for service must be there – give it another three years and you'll unearth it somewhere. I may be a freshman, but I don't want to wait for the service at Marquette to change itself. I don't want to wait while the Marquette continues to shamelessly abuse "Hunger Cleanup" by plastering its accolades all over its admission brochures while not contributing a dollar to help its cause. I don't want to wait while students committing themselves to charitable efforts like Midnight Run and mission trips must scramble for money. Most of all, I don't want to wait to see the marginalized in the Milwaukee community slip through the cracks.

For us concerned students, our redemption comes in the fact that we don't have to wait. It is possible for Marquette to enact a solution in the form of a plan that is simple, self-sustaining and already being used by universities across the country. This plan can be carried out in three phases which build upon each other.

Phase 1: Provide service with direct funding. Don't make students who are already exhausting themselves trying to give your university a good name jump through hoops held by Marquette Student Government (hoops far more intimidating than fire and ice). But who will delegate the allocation of funds?

Phase 2: Recognize an overarching student-run service organization. In addition to distributing funds, this umbrella organization would unite the already-existing service groups by acting as both liaison and general informant of community needs. It would transform Marquette's service from fragmented and overlapping to focused and holistic. And where would this organization operate out of?

Phase 3: Build a Service Connection Center. Oh no, this crosses the line into forbidden grounds – asking for money. But what's this murmur about remodeling the first floor of the Alumni Memorial Union? Why not set aside a large, functional area for a service center instead of using it for the proposed storage space? This service center would make service much more accessible for current students while helping to draw in prospective students.

But that's impossible, you say. We might as well try to change the mating rituals of salmon and reorder the universe. Far from impossible, it's necessary. It's time that the administration of Marquette holds itself accountable for its responsibility to service. If they continue to choose to ignore it, then it's time that we as students hold them accountable.

Ziegler is a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences.