Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Troy McCullough, Tim Davis, Jennifer Holland, Kathleen Carlson and Jenny Hykes.

Students have many different layers of responsibilities, pressures and problems. Jobs, tests, papers and projects all weigh upon our lives.

And some students have the much heavier responsibility of a child.

An article in Friday’s issue of the Daily revealed that college towns, including Ames, have a higher incidence of child neglect than other communities.

We understand that the university environment breeds an intense pressure. Children are not a flexible entity.

A parent has no greater role than that of mother or father; no responsibility outweighs that of their child.

Parents must take care of their children before any other responsibility. Thankfully, Ames and Iowa State have many quality child care facilities, and pressured parents should take advantage of them.

If you have children, before you can be good students, scientists, teachers, researchers, politicians, public servants, writers, mathematicians, botanists or artists, you must first be good parents. This is an argument that no one would deny.

But between the agreement with this statement and the obvious implications of such a belief exists a line of hard choices and sacrifices no one but the parents themselves can make.

Choose responsibility. Your child, your community and you will be better off in the end.