I want my two dollars

The card says...
    By Dave Oppenheim

There are many things we can do with our Yale diplomas. According to Undergraduate Career Services, we can become investment bankers or financial consultants. What we cannot do, however, is join the Yale Administration.

Having bought a car recently, I can say that the swindling salesmen over at Highland Park Lincoln-Mercury have nothing on their brethren at Yale. Yes, the same folks who brought us pay-then-keep-paying cable television have more tricks up their sleeve. Imagine what unspeakable things they do with a slightly more essential item, like food. If we close our eyes tightly, we can hear the whir of cash-sucking vacuum cleaners.

SARA EDWARD-CORBETT/YH

The Yale meal plan smells of sulfur—and that's before one even enters the dining hall. One ingenious way in which the Administration skims money off unsuspecting students is through inconsistent pricing. I noticed this for the first time when I took my sister, a prospective future student, to Commons for lunch. While I swiped in, my sister paid $8.95 for the privilege of eating burger-like objects. The following day, we had lunch in Kline Biology Tower (KBT). KBT is not all-you-can-eat. Rather, it functions more like a restaurant in which patrons are charged for each item. Students can apply the money for their meal plan toward their purchases. I was allotted $6.95.

The question then arises: what is Yale's price for a dining hall meal? When they charge, it is $8.95, but when they credit, it is $6.95. I want my two dollars. Either the price of the meal is actually $6.95 and the Administration is profiting from screwing over unsuspecting guests, or the price is $8.95 and the Administration is profiting from screwing over its current students. Either way, their vacuum doesn't feel too good.

Yale also profits from the Flex Dollars program. Never mind that the terms for a restaurant to enter the program are so greedy that a whopping three have joined. What is most difficult to accept is when Yale turns its greed inward. To participate in the program, students give up one third of their meals. In return, they receive $100 in Flex Dollars per semester. Suffice it to say that if the entire meal plan cost $300 a semester, I would be writing this column after booking my vacation to Europe. The meal plan charge is $1,640. One third of that is $546.67. This means that every student on the Flex Dollars plan is losing over $450 each semester.

The Administration does not deserve sole blame for this sorry situation. Local 34 and 35 have hampered every attempt to improve the Flex program and undoubtedly are even now being placated in part by these ill-gotten gains.

Members of the Class of 1999 got a taste of how ridiculously overpriced the meal plan is during the 1996 labor strike. Receiving large rebate checks from the University and being able to spend them as we saw fit represented the ideal situation for many of us. Yale should learn from that experience: eliminate the entire meal plan, charge dining hall meals to students' bursar accounts, and allow students to find the best deals they can. This solution, however, satisfies neither the Administration's vacuum cleaner nor the unions' industrial hose. Thus students are stuck with a situation that truly sucks.

Recent Herald Columns by this Columnist:
NOTE: SITE WILL APPEAR IN A NEW BROWSER WINDOW

• Don't legislate my alcohol, 3/26/99
• I'll take the physical challenge, 2/26/99
• What's so bad about a good time?, 2/12/99

Back to Opinion...