A tourist walking down Sheridan during the day would be hard-pressed to find the cliché starving college student. Instead, she would find Uggs, Prada totes and enough Apple products to fill an orchard. The tourist would walk past the sushi in our food court or the expensive prices in our C-stores, and be astounded at the pricey way of life here on campus.
But if the tourist stopped to ask students about money, I’m confident that many would admit to being on a budget, to the frugality and the financial difficulty that comes with going to school in an expensive suburb like Evanston. Why the disconnect? Why do we put on the expensive brands and then scrounge around for the cheapest noodles in town?
Perhaps it’s not our fault. Campus food is expensive, and not always worthy of the high prices we pay. But I have to wonder, why do we search out free food when we shell out the big bucks elsewhere?
Because contrary to our expensive exteriors, we are not all wealthy. According to the Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid, approximately one half of all Northwestern undergrads receive financial aid and 866 students of the class of 2008 graduated with student debt. While most of us are not dirt poor, most students are living on moderate budgets, and are overwhelmed by the expensive community we reside in, most notably the price of food on campus. And as new freshmen, my peers and I are continually shocked with how expensive just making it through the day without stomach grumbles can be.
Weinberg freshman Marielle Meurice is especially disappointed in the high prices of campus convenience stores. “Cereal was six dollars for one box at the C-Store. At CVS, the same cereal was two boxes for five dollars.” She isn’t exaggerating, either. A box of Honey Nut Cheerios, my own breakfast fave, is $4.99 at the Hinman C-store. Online at Giant’s PeaPod (a grocery delivery service), the same amount of cereal costs $2.75. A half gallon of milk at the C-Store was $2.99, but on PeaPod, it was $2.39 (and Peapod’s prices include delivery!)
It goes without saying that the university should be doing something about the high price of food on campus. We may not be starving college students, but no one likes to get ripped off. Communication sophomore Jacob Watson says he’s too busy to eat in the dining hall, where his parents pay for his meal plan. Rather Jacob like many of us, resorts to snacks from Starbucks or Norris. Communication junior Kirsten Huppler makes the trek out to Jewel Osco for groceries when she really has to, instead of allowing the university to sell her food for gouged prices.
But it’s an interesting double standard–we all complain about the cost of food yet spring for expensive electronics. Most of us search for the cheapest day-to-day living expenses, but are willing to drop $50 on a pre-ripped tank top from Urban Outfitters. What does this say about our priorities? Are we willing to eat the stale cereal sold for a dollar a box but unwilling to scrimp on our clothing and gadgets? Taking care of our exterior seems to be more important then shelling out the money to provide nutrition for our interior.
Perhaps it’s the Northwestern way, perpetually looking like you could take over the world in a pinch. Or rather, maybe we want our clothing and our material objects to represent the person we strive to be, the lifestyle that we hope we can attain when we graduate from this place–we’re dressing for the job we want, but getting ourselves ready for when that job doesn’t pay for the food bills. Or maybe we simply need to compensate for the fact that we’re all getting scurvy from not being willing to pay for fresh fruits or vegetables. Either way, we as students deserve the right to live our uniquely Northwestern double standard: to slip on our third favorite pair of Uggs and cheat our way out of paying for food as often as possible.