When the dialysis unit for University students temporarily closed this summer in hopes of rejuvenating its exhausted budget, one of the unit's founders, Dr. Jonathan Dranov, remained optimistic.

But two weeks ago, Dranov and others connected with the unit owned up to reality. Reneging on its promised $225,000 grant, the state kept its purse strings drawn. The University likewise claimed no responsibility for the independent unit.

So Dranov's 2-year-old unit did not reopen with the return of this fall's students.

Almost 20 University students suffering from chronic kidney failure must now travel to Centre Community Hospital to receive treatments. That defeats the unit's intent of allowing students to meet their course demands while maintaining a regulated diet and undergoing 4-hour dialysis treatments thrice weekly.

The uniqueness of the dialysis program, which allowed students to receive treatments in their residences, drew some kidney patients who might otherwise have not attended college. Those students, victimized by the bureaucratic bungling, may now have to bury their college aspirations.

Perhaps the only hope for the unit's survival is for fellow students and student organizations to recognize the unit and patients' needs and take up where the state left off.

Surely, if Dance Marathon can raise more than $750,000, students collectively can raise the $225,000 needed to keep the dialysis unit operating.

And if the University can't help support the unit, it could and should embrace the smaller commitment of facilitating the scheduling of treatments at and transportation to the Centre Community Hospital.

One bus. Almost twenty students. Three times a week.

Such provisions will by no means replace the convenience afforded by the off-campus dialysis unit, but any commitment, however small, could help retain some of the students.