My name is Logan Rice, and I am a student at Ohio University. I am writing in regard to the article Will Drabold wrote on Nov. 8, titled “Market Mark-ups: Campus market prices higher than retail’s.” Since I am a current student, I have experienced the backlash from some of these price markups. The article made me realize the Ohio University markets are a scam. Although buying groceries off campus would help fix the price markup on campus, it is a huge inconvenience for many underclassmen.
Students empty their pockets to buy groceries at the campus markets. I overheard a student the other day at Boyd Market saying that he could only afford to eat ramen noodles the rest of the week, because the items he bought at the market — two boxes of Oreos and Gatorade — broke his bank. When I asked him the price of the items he purchased, he told me it was equivalent to eight meals. That was on a Wednesday, and he had already used the rest of his meals for the week, so he only had a few dollars to spend for meals until Sunday. When I went back to look at the price of the Oreos on the shelf, they were the price of one full meal swipe. Last time I checked, a box of Oreos does not suffice for dinner.
Many students at this university take out loans to attend classes and owe the school thousands of dollars — even an extra $2 savings a week would make a significant difference to a college student swimming in debt. That money could be put toward paying for classes. OU markets should not be profiting year after year, especially by 18.9 percent. That money is the student’s money and should be given Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0
ck to them, not kept by Culinary Services.
Current Ohio University students already pay for many items that most of them do not use. Each tuition bill students receive includes a bill for Athletics at Ohio University. Students help pay for athletes’ tutoring, stadium maintenance and even for the teams’ breakfast, served by Culinary Services, the day before each game. Students are overpaying for education that benefits other people. We should not have to pay for expensive groceries, too.
Also, many underclassmen do not have cars and cannot get to Wal-Mart or Kroger. Their only option if they want groceries is the OU markets. You say that the markets provide students with varying inventories and multiple ways to pay for products a short walk from their dorm. The only reason the markets are still in business is because there is no other grocery store nearby with lower prices. That is unjust of the university to condone.
The article made me realize that this university is run more like a business and less like a school. Higher-ups are so worried about making more money that I feel as if they would do anything, such as ripping off their students, to make a bigger profit.
Logan Rice is a junior at Ohio University.
