By Ken Walker
The truth of it is that UPS has taken over. A program that was introduced with the graduating class of 1999 by the state-aided Metro Scholarship Fund has left some transfer students, graduate students and upper classmen in the wind sucking dust, while fiery young freshmen take their rooms because UPS says so. UPS, a company owned by a female, notably in the Fortune Elite Eight, is now “the single highest college funding aid corporation in the world (according to UPS.com/msCfund_bs)” with their politically induced Metro Scholarship Fund. I called UPS, and they now have “over forty-one hundred students in the area working there nights,” according to Judy Bright. The fund will pay for school, and some new programs to get involved in are the ones that pay room and board, as well as some food. I was not here before UPS took over U of L, but I got here the same year and I have seen UPS grow into a trend as big as McDonald’s or Abercrombie.
Housing at U of L seems to be as large a growing problem as parking. The university residence halls are currently “49 percent freshmen and 34 percent sophomores…” according to online statistics at DormROOMcount.com. DormROOMcount.com releases statistics on every university in the east and south regarding living conditions, race, religion- nearly everything. They do this through online surveys, and you may be interested to know that U of L’s living conditions were highly ranked, but “availability for upperclassmen” was very close to the bottom. In trying to interview campus residents, I was turned away for quotes. Some students that live on campus, like freshman Mike Grendwood, say: “I love UPS, I go there and work and it is all paid. Everything is cool, and all I do is work.” Senior Sara Refinite says, “I had to get an off-campus apartment on Barrett while my little sister, who is a freshman, went to work at UPS and got a room without a problem. I am almost done, I do not want to start a new job just to get a dorm room.”
By 2007, UPS is expanding their hubs and land coverage nearly to Preston Highway. A man I work with is having his home torn down to comply with UPS paying him off. He doesn’t care. He likes the money. But the expansion of UPS can only spell expansion of a housing problem and more underclassmen knocking out opportunities for non-UPS students to live on campus. They are supposedly going to “bring much better benefits,” according to Bright. It is amazing. I do not live on campus. I interviewed students outside of Miller and the new UPS apartments, and the ones that were freshmen said they loved it, while the upperclassmen had differing opinions. We all know the problems of the university. We are part of it. This problem only seems to be expanding, however. In 2000, according to DRC.com, U of L’s stats were 29 percent freshmen, 31 percent sophomores, 34 percent juniors, and 6 percent seniors. That freshmen number has jumped 20 percent, and the reason is obvious: UPS. My best advice is for upperclassmen to give up your internships or newly found jobs and apply to UPS. It is a sure bet.
