It's about time. After months of negotiations, it looks like the State College Borough Council and the university have come to an agreement about plans for West Campus.

Once the council approves of Penn State's plans, which is likely to happen at the next council meeting, the university will begin building graduate housing near the golf course.

For undergraduate students, this means that the graduate housing on campus eventually will be converted to living space for undergraduate students. This extra housing certainly won't be enough, considering that there is always someone in temporary housing every semester, but at least it's something.

The tentative agreement between the university and borough council didn't come to pass without some glitches, however. During the last council meeting, several council members made very pointed statements regarding the new housing's future occupants. "It's one thing if you're talking about housing the people you're talking about. It's another thing if you're talking about undergraduate housing," Janet Knauer said. She and others were worried about Penn State converting the apartments from graduate to undergraduate housing.

Why is it "another thing" if the housing were to be built for undergraduates? Perhaps borough council ought to remember that 75 percent of its constituents are students — undergraduate students, that is. If not for the university and its subsequent student population, State College's local economy would suffer greatly. Downtown restaurants and bars would be empty. Half the local stores would have closed down while the other half never would have opened in the first place.

So the next time that borough council wants to treat undergraduate students like a menace, maybe they should remember that without the students, their bustling downtown economy would simply be a bust.