If we can be candid about one fact of life in the community of Slippery Rock, it is that student tuition dollars grease the skids of everyone’s existence.

There’s no getting around the fact that Slippery Rock would be a very different Slippery Rock were in not for the student body of Slippery Rock University.

The salaries of faculty, administration and staff provide homes and all the trappings for many families, and the rent paid by off-campus students, as well as their purchases, sustain a business community.

It’s upon this mental image of The Rock that we prop up the idea of appointing a member of the student body to a vacant two-year term on the borough council.

On Tuesday night, that’s just what council did. After hearing from the last of four candidates, council voted 4-2 to appoint Denton Zeronas to council.

Zeronas, 22, a Republican, ran in the primary and was the highest vote-getter who did not advance to the general election. He is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in secondary education-social studies at SRU with plans to pursue a master’s degree.

Council Vice President Itzi Meztli, an SRU professor who spoke on Zeronas’s behalf during his motion, said Zeronas offers a unique perspective.

“I feel like it would be good to have younger voices give some input,” Meztli said. “I also know him, and I’m very impressed.”

Zeronas said he looks forward to being not only a representative for his school but his community.

We could put a few more words in Zeronas’ mouth by adding this: An SRU student on council represents the millions of hard-earned tuition and room and board dollars his classmates and their families spend in Slippery Rock to further their educations and careers.

A community that benefits from these dollars has an obligation to accommodate these students whenever reasonably possible, and they should be grateful for the opportunity that this kind of resource represents, giving the source of this revenue stream an appropriate measure of acknowledgment, if not outright respect.