Two weeks ago, Grand Valley State University celebrated its 100,000th graduate. This is a huge milestone for the university, and it should be celebrated as such.

In recent history, the university’s student population has continued to skyrocket. Compared to other Michigan universities, GVSU is young, and the recent growth in popularity and prestige is excellent for its reputation. As for the future, there seems to be no signs of slowing down.

“It’s taken us 48 years to get to 100,000 grads,” President Thomas Haas said during the afternoon commencement ceremony on April 25. “As a university of 25,000 students now, we can award the 200,000th diploma in about 17 years.”

However, when the new alumni and their families left and the current Lakers packed up and went home for the summer, the construction began. While the P. Douglas Kindschi Hall of Science is wrapping up its construction, more projects are just beginning. A new residence hall is starting to take shape in what is now Robinson field. Major changes to the Kirkhof Center are already underway and more orange construction cone sites are sprouting up around the Allendale campus.

With all these additions to GVSU’s campus, it seems like the university is frantically trying to keep up with an ever-increasing number of Lakers. However, if the number of students keeps increasing, GVSU will never be able to catch up. More buildings and students isn’t necessarily a negative thing, but perhaps all the effort the university is putting into attracting new students could be better served by focusing on the students that GVSU already has.

The 25,000 students that are already Lakers for a lifetime deserve the best from their university, and that doesn’t just mean the latest and greatest buildings. This also means the best academic programs and resources for the programs that are well-established at GVSU.

In fact, the university has already faced some issues accommodating the number of students it has. In the fall of 2014, some admitted freshman could not secure on-campus housing, due to a lack of available beds and an increased freshman class of 2018.

A larger student body is great, but even greater than more students is providing better academic programming and opportunities for the students that GVSU currently has. Even if the university insists on building, perhaps those construction efforts could better serve current students’ needs. The students that utilize the Performing Arts Center have been asking for renovations for years, but their pleas seem to have met deaf ears. In addition, there are many existing academic programs that could benefit from new and improved technology or tools, or even curriculums.

All Lakers should be excited for the success of GVSU and its ever-growing base of alumni. However, it’s past time for the university to take a close look at where its resources are allocated and whether GVSU is really serving the students it already has the best it possibly can.