Water fountains disappear on Halifax campuses while vending machines selling expensive beverages pop up everywhere! We students have nowhere else to go and of course the colleges get part of the revenue. Text books for courses change every year—usually just newer versions with enough variation to force you to buy new rather than risk older versions—and we know who the publishers pay to ensure this constant rollover. Student housing offices direct students to their sites where we can view apartment listings for free but since they charge landlords for the privilege of showing us the selection is so limited its a waste of time. College education is expensive enough already, so…. Hey administrators, stop fucking us! —Student Loans Forever
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2010.
I’m sorry, were you saying something?
now be a good student there and bend back over…..
they haven’t finished yet.
While I totally agree with the sentiments, I have noticed that there are still the same number of washrooms on campus. Bring a bottle, fill it when you need it, and frustrate the hell out of Dasani or whoever.
while i agree that the cost of university is alarmingly high, there still seems to be a massive amount of those “poor students” who can make it out to the clubs every weekend, finally spilling out into the streets at closing time, and make complete asses of themselves.
of course, i know this does not apply to all students. just sayin…
I feel you on the books thing, OP. Sadly, I got the same treatment from these hucksters almost fifteen years ago. Stick with the scams that work, I guess.
At smu they put a fancy ass water dispenser by the washrooms just up from the cafe in the atrium. It’s got a neat blue sensor!
Also: ask your profs if you can get by on the previous edition. A lot of the time the changes are so minimal that it doesn’t really matter (as long as you have a friend’s book to compare to you can usually find the material — they’ll mix it up just to make it different enough to try to force students to buy the new editions). I even had a prof once who would put down the reading and assignment cases down for both the current and previous editions in the syllabus.
Basically, the only way you really get fucked as far as new editions is when you go to sell yours back and the bookstore won’t buy it back.
While I am very aware of the high costs of university, I think that any intelligent student can find a few ways to economize here and there without sacrificing too much quality of life.
OP, you DO know from your high school math that small savings add up to BIG savings over time, right? So look, I know it’s not easy, and I know that every penny counts, (and yes, textbooks are a rip-off) but guess what? YOU ARE NOT OBLIGATED to spend your money at the vending machines! That’s right! You ARE allowed to keep some of your own money to spend on other things that are more important to you.
For example, one can buy juices, sodas, etc. for a more reasonable price at the grocery store, and they could, say, drop a few in their “backpack” (you do have a “backpack” don’t you?) in the morning and have them on hand.
OK, so they don’t stay cold that way. Well then, way back when I was in elementary school, (before the invention of things like electricity or vending machines) we had something called a “Thermos” that kept drinks reasonably cold—or hot if necessary. Maybe they still sell these today. For example, MINE had a groovy graphic of “The Bionic Woman” on it and I tell ya, I thought I was some cool walking around with THAT in my lunchbox.
YOU could try using a “Thermos”—I hear they make them with more current pop-culture figures now (or just plain), and then you could show everyone that you are (ironically) hipper than anyone ever thought possible.
Oh! Oh! One more idea! If a “Thermos” is just too dorky, you could still get one of those fancy coffee cups or water bottles that all the kids seem to have these days and — Hey! Get this!!—YOU COULD FILL IT YOURSELF and have water/juice/tea/coffee available all morning or all afternoon. Cool huh?
Come on, OP. Part of being a grown-up student is deciding for yourself what you want to support and what you don’t. If you don’t want to spend your cash at the vending machines (I never do) then don’t! Think how smug and rebellious you could feel, knowing that every time you walk by that those evil vending corporations aren’t getting any of YOUR money.
Woo hoo! Let the revolution begin!!!!!!
Haha what I absolutely LOVE is how certain drinks’ll cost $2.50 in the vending machine at SMU and then cost over $3 if I buy it from the one of the actual vendors on campus (aramark run, I believe). heh.
And NO I don’t buy that anymore. I bring cans of diet pepsi, usually, because SMU apparently sold their soul to coke instead of pepsi like every other campus in this province, and diet coke sucks ass.
quick now, everyone who isn’t getting ripped off, raise your hands, oooh, i see what, a half dozen hands, there’s your answer o.p.
I love thermo’s
I got one at the super store for $1.50. I pop an ice cube in that thing and I have freezing cold juice all day. Equally as fantastic, I can put tea in it at it still be hot hours after. It’s truly an amazing concept.
mind blowing even!
Thinking ahead… how very un-studenty…
but when it comes to gettin their drank on,
they’ve got their booze and mix in a holster.
Yeah well, that’s life. On the apartment search front check out http://www.rentdonkey.ca that’s the only good site for apartment hunting in Halifax.