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E-PrinceSince 2007, the Undergraduate Financial Aid Office has provided a larger board allowance for juniors and seniors in an effort to offset the higher costs of eating club membership when compared to University meal plans. According to the results of ...
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"The method for calculating the board allowance should be altered from the mean cost of eating-club fees to the median cost. This would ensure that financial aid would cover the total cost of club membership for at least half of all club members, instead of the current minority in Terrace."
I feel like you're contradicting yourself... first you say the problem is mean/median, then you say the problem is the U not covering social fees. It's really the latter that's the problem. If you were to change it to the median, we might get a little bit more, but we still don't get the much more substantive chunk of money that is needed to pay social fees.
How spoiled can we get? The university is being generous enough in taking eating club fees into account at all. The cost differential isn't so great that a student desperate to join a club couldn't take out a loan or get another job to finance membership.
Totally agree with "sick of entitlement." I have a friend at Harvard, and financial aid there doesn't cover final clubs. And why should it? Join an eating club if you want, but don't expect the university to foot the bill for this off-campus exclusivity.
'true equality' or whatever the prince editors are talking about is b.s. we're talking about exclusive social institutions that serve free alcohol... ever wonder where that money comes from? The idea that the school should subsidize the student experience at these clubs even further is ridiculous. If it's a financial barrier, cut the baloney about feeling 'left out' and go independent. If some tool wants to join Tower or Ivy and can't afford the extra $$, get a job. It might look a little blue collar to the rest of those smug nincompoops, but that's life. If that means that you have to quit your position as a 'prince' editor, then it's win-win for everybody!
My boyfriend took out a loan to pay for TI. It's all paid back now and it wasn't that big of a deal. If being in a club is important to you, there are plenty of ways to pay for it without complaining and expecting the University to take care of your social life.
Income from a job (or an additional job) that one could do while at school could easily pay for the social fees of clubs. There are many easy ways to make a few extra bucks, tutoring, campus jobs etc. If it isn't worth it to you to spend your hard earned money on eating club social fees, then that is your decision, but unlike in times past, everybody can afford to join an eating club if they want. Economic inequality is part of life for people in the US and the rest of the world and Princeton is actually part of the world and not separate from it.
Wealthier students can afford to go out to eat much more often than students from poor backgrounds. Going out to eat with friends and love interests is an important part of the Princeton experience. Princeton should give all students an income adjusted credit usable at all restaurants in the township.
"Economic inequality is part of life for people in the US and the rest of the world and Princeton is actually part of the world and not separate from it."
According to this logic, Princeton shouldn't give financial aid at all.
Obviously asking for more financial aid for clubs is entitled, but this isn't actually that drastic or illogical. People who genuinely can't afford sophomore dues would be able to join just like someone who genuinely can't afford a dining hall meal plans gets financial aid to be able to do so.
There are a lot of factors that perpetuate inequality on this campus, not just socially, but academically: there is, of course, the obvious point that someone from a poor family has every incentive to pocket the $7,000 in aid instead of spending it on an eating club. So no matter how much you increase the aid, richer people will be more likely to join clubs, even if we don't take into account any biases introduced in the bicker process. As far as academic inequality goes, it takes TIME to do those jobs that (non-NJ) students are required to do as part of their financial aid. It takes even more time to work for spending money. Richer students can even afford to pay others to do their laundry. I don't mean to overstate the effect of this, but I think it's pretty clear that a wealthier student will tend to have more free time for academics and extracurriculars, rather than jobs.
Also, what in the name of Jesus are the non-Terrace clubs doing with all that money?
it takes a lot to maintain the premises. these clubs are little businesses, which are themselves trying to weather the economic storm. Often times membership levels are cyclical, which means they will have years of surplus in order to sustain years of deficit. What they are doing with all that money is trying to provide the best services to their members food-wise, and present the best facilities, and pay its employees. All the clubs get lumped together, but most of them do not have the kind of endowments that a few of them do.