Next year, the University will require eating club and co-op members to buy a dining hall meal plan. This policy could destroy these beloved institutions.
The University is requiring these students to pay $900 per year for a dining hall plan that they neither need nor want.
Students will have to sign two contracts: one with their club and one with the University. This will create confusion for them and their families.
While the University will cover this plan for students on financial aid, families who barely miss qualifying for aid will struggle with the additional cost.
A $900 minimum plan this year could become a $2000 or $5000 requirement next year. Future administrators can can use this policy to starve our the eating clubs.
"The University could artificially reduce demand for eating clubs such that only a fraction of them are financially viable. In this nightmare scenario, only a select few students would be part of the remaining clubs. This would make Princeton look more like Harvard or Yale, whose social scene is defined by a handful of elitist finals clubs and exclusionary secret societies."
The GICC proposed reasonable alternatives that protect students and clubs.
Students are adults and they are more than capable to choose for themselves whether or not they need additional dining hall meals.
The University currently gives each upperclassman two free meals at the dining halls, which they will stop doing next year in favor of this program.
"Some back of the envelope math: 3000 upperclassmen x 72% in clubs and co-ops x 30% not on aid x $900 means the University is proposing to collect $583k in revenue from students who already have a meal plan, which seems inconsequential to their $3B operating budget."
Princeton's undergraduate experience is special. Don't turn us into Harvard or Yale.