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It is the end of the semester, and once again Lehigh Dining has begun the process of extorting money from the student body. Instead of turning Water into Wine, Dining Services has begun turning Meal Plan meals into dust.

Lehigh University's Truck Sale

Take the 225 block meal plan, a favorite of Freshmen. It costs $2,230 and comes with 225 meals and $50 dining dollars. This breaks down to $2180, or $9.68 per meal. However, when using meal plan meals as cash equivalencies, a student is only given $4.25 credit. While this is understandable because both dining halls and other establishments overlap and as a result are inefficient, the loss of $5 in equity per meal is enormous, and is essentially plundering the pockets of unknowing freshmen. The exchange rate only worsens when one examines smaller meal plans, such as the 75 meal plan, which costs $12.67 per meal. The irony here is a Dinner at the dining hall costs only $12.25, meaning buying a meal plan includes a convenience charge of 42 cents.

However, the real issue is how the University handles unused meals; extorting students more than they already do.

Prices at the Lehigh University "Bulk Sale"

Turning to a case-study of Lehigh’s Dining Dilemma, A case of Gatorade is $43.99. (24 bottles, 20 oz.) A quick Google search reveals a case at Staploes for $25, and Warehouse retailer Sam’s Club sells a case for $15. Even adding in the $35 for a membership to Sam’s Club, it is still cheaper than buying from Dining Services.

Aquafina Water is even more egregious than Gatorade; $30.99 off the truck, and $4.88 at Sam’s Club.

While the examples go on and on, it is simply ridiculous to extort students by cashing in on their leftover dining dollars. If anything, students should be given cash back equal to half of the value of unused meals.

In Lehigh’s Hawks Nest restaurant, there has been a noticeable shortage of utensils. Due to the proximity to the end of the semester, the Hawks Nest has not ordered more plastic-ware.

Two articles to stimulate your interest:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/26/attention_whole_foods_shoppers

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703514404574588792834312898.html

Lehigh’s department of International Relations boasts more majors than almost any other in the College of Arts and Sciences – 130, according to its website.

That Lehigh has a separate department of International Relations, as opposed to one that is only accessible through the department of Political Science, has long been one of the CAS’s proudest distinctions.

However, all is not well in the back left corner offices in Maginnes. The department is losing its patriarch in Professor Rajan Menon, who holds a Bachelors and a Masters from Lehigh and has attracted countless students to the IR major with his masterful lecturing in his Intro to World Politics course.

Amid Menon’s departure, rumors, heretofore unreported by any campus media outlet, of IR’s imminent absorption into the Political Science department have students and professors alike ready to come to blows with Dean Ann Meltzer.

The IR department held its own town hall meeting last week for majors, which was off-limits to the press, but students left the meeting with a larger-than-ever sense of paranoia about the future of the department.

A resistance movement that was the product of that meeting has secured a sit-down with Dean Meltzer on March 2nd.

In a statement communicated to IR students through the department coordinator, Meltzer vehemently denied any plans to dissolve or merge the IR department. Her e-mail left little room for future equivocation, stating, “I am not aware of any proposal to do either.”

This directly contradicts off-the-record statements from faculty in the IR and Political Science departments, who insist that they’ve been approached with plans for some form of restructuring.

At this point, one of two outcomes is possible: The restructuring will proceed, revealing grave deception and a lack of transparency on the part of the administration. Alternatively, Dean Meltzer may already be backing off of this proposal after such a decisively negative reaction.

Either way, this is what college is all about: Professors and students standing up to administrative powers to protect academic excellence from the indiscriminate hatchet of cost-cutting and consolidation.

Anyone who’s critical of the role of tenure in higher education should take note of the crucial ability of professors to act as a check against wayward administrative priorities.

Stay tuned to The Patriot for additional coverage of this developing story.

I had wanted to post this before the weekend, but it’s always easier to let Jon Stewart have his turn, rather than doing the analysis myself.  Luckily, the House GOP’s dismal approval rating and generally objective incompetence should ensure the hilarity of this segment regardless of your political preference.