To no one’s surprise, Montclair State University found a new way to get money from their students this holiday season.
Montclair State sent out an email stating, “Residential students have the option to purchase a special Thanksgiving meal plan for the Thanksgiving Day and weekend, priced at $80.00.”
The email only talked about dining at Sam’s Place over the break. However, Sam’s Place was only open until 12 p.m. on Thursday.
This might be their most ludicrous move yet. Like seriously, you are asking students to pay an extra 80 dollars for food for four days? What is even the point of charging students when it’s such a short break?
One could argue that the money is being used to pay the dining services staff to work on the holiday, but shouldn’t that have been budgeted and dealt with in the beginning of the year?
It is just astounding how the university will essentially punish those who are unable to travel home to spend the holiday with their family.
Was it really vital to the school to get that $80 from that unlucky bunch of students? Shouldn’t we show some compassion to those who have to spend their holiday away from their families?
The school is constantly looking for ways to take money from their students. The school imposes insane parking fees and even more insane parking tickets.
In 2022, The Montclarion reported, “Montclair State University raked in over $1 million in parking tickets within the last three years, according to statistics obtained by The Montclarion. The university collected $574,608 in parking tickets in the fiscal year from 2018 to 2019.”
We understand that parking needs to be regulated somehow, but does it really have to be that expensive?
Especially when there is becoming less and less spaces available due to the amount of students being admitted.
Not to mention, the school implemented a new mandatory commuter meal plan. Obviously, everyone thinks it was just another grab at more money on the school’s part. And while you do get your money back, the school is still using that money for something in the meantime.
It just seems like another way to steal from students’ pockets because if a student wanted a meal plan, they would get one. There shouldn’t be any forcing of it in the matter.
Students who work paycheck to paycheck and struggle with paying bills, does not make their plight any better.
Montclair State, we recognize that you need money to operate our school. However, these little fees and whatnot add up. Some students just do not have $80 to spend on food when they already paid for their meal plans.
Maybe next year, we can show more empathy for our students who struggle financially and get rid of this cheap trick meal plan.
