Whether you want to purchase some tasty nachos from Taco Bull or half a dozen chicken wings from Hubie's, it seems to be getting more difficult for students to get through a semester without spending extra money on food.
Due to a lack of flexibility of meal plans, many find themselves seeking out cheaper sources of food elsewhere.
For a busy student on campus, it can often seem like the dining halls open late and close early in the evening.
Yet another predicament comes with lunch, which is apparently a non-existent entity at UB. While students can purchase food anywhere on the academic spine, students are not allowed to use their meal plans.
During breakfast and dinner (the only official meals during the workweek) students may use meal equivalency at Putnam's, but not other a la carte eating-places. But if a student were to use every meal equivalency at Putnam's every day of the workweek, they would eventually end up spending hundreds of dollars.
Moreover, weekend options leave students out in the cold. The only place where a meal plan is valid over the weekend is at the dining halls, which many students try to avoid. The Commons offers a wide variety of delicious food, but they will only accept Campus Cash or greenbacks.
Consequently, it seems that investing $1,000 in Dining Dollars and Campus Cash would be wise.
But what about the occasion when a student desires to eat in the dining hall without a meal plan? In that case, the student would have to pay the cash price for the meal - over $10 for dinner. Is that really what Campus Dining & Shops thinks their food is worth? If so, they are grossly mistaken.
But after all, college students don't have taste buds and their wallets are bottomless.
Feds finally try to increase college aid
Students or the GOP - who will win?
It may not help you now, but over the next four years, the federal government will increase financial aid to college students if President Bush decides to sign the bill into law.
To those students trying to make it through college without enormous debt, it seems that increased financial aid is a no-brainer - but will our nation's President agree?
All in all, according to a September 8, 2007 Associated Press article by Nancy Zuckerbrod, there were 109 lawmakers from the Senate and House of Representatives who opposed the bill, all of whom were republicans.
Why these esteemed representatives of our great nation oppose the bill is unknown. As it seems, there is only good that can come of the cuts in federal loan interest rates from 6.8 to 3.4 percent and increase in Pell grants by 2012.
Thomas Reynolds, the republican US Representative for the 26th District of New York, which covers UB's North Campus, did not vote for or against the bill. Rep. Brian Higgins, who represents the 27th District that covers South Campus, voted for the bill.
If the Republican party so desires to pull the youth vote from the left to the right, then they need to advocate for them. Oh wait, there really isn't much of a "youth vote," is there?
President Bush has a golden opportunity to show his support for students by signing the bill, which would be a small step down the road towards redemption.
Students, however, would be a much less politically ignored group if more of us registered to vote and did so, and for leaders with our best interests in mind.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
