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Student Government Association President O.J. Oleka has accepted the meal plan. It’s in place, the University of Louisville has signed the contract with Sodexo, and there’s not a whole lot we can do about it now. Sodexo will demand their money regardless, and U of L will extract it from its students in any way possible. If not in an explicit fee, then in tuition increases. House Bill 305 has an admirable goal: to keep commuter students from being roped into meal plan fees. Maybe this will save commuter students at other Kentucky universities, but at U of L it’s too late.
However, the recreation center fee that is looming on the horizon for students can still be stopped, if not for every student, then certainly for commuters. The logic of House Bill 305 carries to the recreation center fee. Students who may not be on campus often should not be forced to buy a meal plan they won’t use, or a recreation center they won’t use.
In a perfect world, the Kentucky General Assembly would fund public education at a level where it could thrive, U of L would give its faculty and staff annual pay increases, and U of L would build a new academic building to alleviate the overcrowding issues. But these are trying times. Kentucky’s economy is in the tank, and students are subjected to year after year of tuition increases. A new recreation center is more luxury than necessity – the one in the Student Activities Center is just fine for now.
Let’s learn our lesson from the meal plan debacle now, before House Bill 305 is expanded.
