Eric the Red

Dining services recently proposed a new meal plan that effectively changes the value of $1 to approvimately 398% less than $1. Interesting fuzzy math, ya?

Consider the following:

“The A La Board meal plan introduces a five-level system, with the lowest level costing $1,545 and the highest costing $2,045. Level Two has the most similar cost as the currently most popular “Campus Plan,” at $1,645 a semester. Under the Level Two plan, if students wished to purchase food outside the diners, at the Stamp Student Union food court for example, they would be subject to a 398 percent markup. That is, with a cost of $1,645, you are only able to purchase $415 worth of food at the court. Even under the best-case scenario financially, which involves eating every single meal at the Diner, you would be able to buy $1,221 worth of food, still $46 less than the current Campus Plan provides.”

I am going to look over the “official” numbers myself after a couple of days due to exams and a hectic work schedule.

One of the atrocities this administration has committed against its students is the relentless hike in so-called “mandatory fees”in order to hide the cost of a semester of “education” from the state. Since these fees are assessed seperately from tuition, they school can claim to be affordable. Most of these fees are charged to students who live on campus.

Since the University does not itemize these fees on the tuition bill, the witch knows what they are. A friend of mine who lives on campus paid $585.50 in unspecified “mandatory fees” (on top of $70 to make per-minute phone calls and $42 “tech fee”). His other costs were:

• $1645.50 for the meal plan, which allows a little more than $1,000 to actually spend on food, subject to the University’s takings.
• $3283 for tuition
• $2392 for on-campus housing

Note that I live off campus and use a Terrapin Express account, where I get $1 to spend for every dollar I deposit. Also, the balance rolls over between each year/semester, while the meal plan balance vanishes the day after finals end. If one lives in freshman campus housing, one cannot rely exclusively on Terrapin Express, so the campus meal plan along with its forced budgeting is required.

Now the the Terps basketball season is down the drain, I guess they would like to brag about being the biggest waste of money in higher education? Perhaps I should write a book about my time here: “Mugged by the Terp” to describe my experiences with the exponentially higher costs for an exponentially lower education?