Hopkins dining: less bang for your buck
The only other time I have seen two different prices charged is if someone has a special membership or a coupon. Here we have the situation in reverse. Whoever heard of a non-members discount? Use this coupon to pay 120 percent of the usual price!
What makes the system inherently unfair is that we have no way of protesting. If a place is failing its customers so badly, then the consumer should be able to take his business elsewhere. The students here have no recourse to normal market pressures.
If you live on campus, you are forced to buy a meal plan. One has to use the Dining Dollars or else forfeit the money. A boycott is impossible because they have already taken my money upfront. They could charge twice as much as the nearest place and I would be forced to pay those prices. We're not customers; we're slaves.
My solution is radical but obvious: Get rid of the University meal plans. The meal plans are monopolistic and unfair. Students should be free to spend their money where they want.
Actually, I would go even further and say the University should not run any type of dining system. The dining halls, like Fresh Food Café, are poorly designed and poorly run. Do not force us to subsidize your sub-par dining halls and food. Educate us; we will feed ourselves.
One counterargument would be to say that perhaps the University could use dining to entice prospective students. I doubt that. Face it, our mediocre food is not going to win any awards, and the only way we are going to get better food is if they charge us even more. No, let capitalism have free rein, and then we'll have better food and better service.
The removal of the dining system would save students money. The University can tell students that if they come here, they will not have to pay a few extra thousand dollars. That is way more enticing than the opportunity to purchase overpriced and undercooked vegetables.
What makes the system inherently unfair is that we have no way of protesting. If a place is failing its customers so badly, then the consumer should be able to take his business elsewhere. The students here have no recourse to normal market pressures.
If you live on campus, you are forced to buy a meal plan. One has to use the Dining Dollars or else forfeit the money. A boycott is impossible because they have already taken my money upfront. They could charge twice as much as the nearest place and I would be forced to pay those prices. We're not customers; we're slaves.
My solution is radical but obvious: Get rid of the University meal plans. The meal plans are monopolistic and unfair. Students should be free to spend their money where they want.
Actually, I would go even further and say the University should not run any type of dining system. The dining halls, like Fresh Food Café, are poorly designed and poorly run. Do not force us to subsidize your sub-par dining halls and food. Educate us; we will feed ourselves.
One counterargument would be to say that perhaps the University could use dining to entice prospective students. I doubt that. Face it, our mediocre food is not going to win any awards, and the only way we are going to get better food is if they charge us even more. No, let capitalism have free rein, and then we'll have better food and better service.
The removal of the dining system would save students money. The University can tell students that if they come here, they will not have to pay a few extra thousand dollars. That is way more enticing than the opportunity to purchase overpriced and undercooked vegetables.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
Anon
posted 3/07/08 @ 8:35 AM EST
You should be thankful Hopkins requires only freshmen to have dining plans... there are many schools which require students to have dining plans for much longer. (Continued…)
Charles Tsai
posted 3/07/08 @ 1:11 PM EST
First off, a dining dollar would be around $1.30 -- not 77 cents. I think the argument of the article might be slightly different if the 77 cents per dining dollar were the case. (Continued…)
Charles Tsai
posted 3/07/08 @ 1:18 PM EST
In regards to my opening line, I apologize to the author as I misread "worth" as "cost."
Anonymous
posted 3/08/08 @ 2:23 PM EST
That's why I referred a dining dollar as a "dining Euro" during my sophomore year (since the Euro-USD exchange rate was around 1.3 to 1 back in early 2007). (Continued…)
Jessica
posted 3/08/08 @ 2:29 PM EST
Hopkins requires freshman AND sophomores to have meal plans and exceptions are only give to those few sophomores who find housing in Bradford or Homewood. (Continued…)
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