First day of ALAYBOY classes today, and a funny/aggravating story

ALAYMAN

ALAYMAN

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Today is the real first day of ALAYBOY's collegiate journey. He admitted has been a bit nervous/anxious this past week. He's a smart enough kid to handle stuff, but he is a bit of a nervous Nelly and introvert. Well, last night he went out to eat his Last Supper, lol. The University REQUIRES that all freshman (unless medically exempted) pay for an unlimited meal plan which costs (ME) $2500 per semester. UC is mostly a commuter school. They have maybe about 10 eating establishments scattered throughout campus that are meal plan partners (there are more eateries than that, but they would cost out of pocket money in addition to the meal plan expense). Since they are a commuter school the number of places to eat is reduced on the weekend to just two. When ALAYBOY went to get something to eat last night around 8 there was only one of those two open, and they close at 10, but that place is already his preferred place to eat so it's all good. He swiped his student ID to get in only to be told "we don't have any food left".:oops: How would you like to have (been forced) paid thousands of dollars for food, only to have your kid be told "get off my lawn kid"!:mad:

So, like that one show with John Quinones....

What would you do?
 
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Storm the Chancellor's office! Tell them either get rid of the stupid requirement or make sure ALAYBOY will always be able to get food if the place is open.

I'd question the wisdom of requiring charging such money for food like that. It's a college phenomenon that incoming freshmen pack on weight because of meal plans. I remember the meal plans at the schools I've been to... Even "healthy" options are fattening. I would imagine multiple vendors means much fast food. 🤢
 
abcaines said:
Storm the Chancellor's office! Tell them either get rid of the stupid requirement or make sure ALAYBOY will always be able to get food if the place is open.

I'd question the wisdom of requiring charging such money for food like that. It's a college phenomenon that incoming freshmen pack on weight because of meal plans. I remember the meal plans at the schools I've been to... Even "healthy" options are fattening. I would imagine multiple vendors means much fast food.
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I'm not happy about being required to go with a meal plan, but it is what it is. Me and the wife scouted the options during orientation and though there is plenty of frat food to plump a kid up, there was enough cafeteria-style buffet foods that weren't merely deep-fried donuts and fries that we were satisfied. He's a picky eater anyway, so the challenge for him was to get past his apathy long enough to get out of his dorm and walk to the meal plan options. We were actually kinda encouraged that he had been doing that, but then this snag happened.

Some back-story here. UC is having quite the image issue because of growing pains. They have aggressively increased their enrollment in the last couple of years and their housing arrangements have been fodder for the local news outlets. This year the administration went on record saying that they had gotten those housing (over-population) problems cured, but that was a gargantuan stretch of anything resembling truth. This type of food shortage on the weekend is probably a spin-off logistical issue related to poor expansion planning, and from social media Parent Group reporting this is a continuation from problems that existed last year. I'm not much of a trouble-making sort, but this better not happen again or I will take it up the flagpole to the news people.
 
ALAYMAN said:
I'm not happy about being required to go with a meal plan, but it is what it is. Me and the wife scouted the options during orientation and though there is plenty of frat food to plump a kid up, there was enough cafeteria-style buffet foods that weren't merely deep-fried donuts and fries that we were satisfied. He's a picky eater anyway, so the challenge for him was to get past his apathy long enough to get out of his dorm and walk to the meal plan options. We were actually kinda encouraged that he had been doing that, but then this snag happened.

Some back-story here. UC is having quite the image issue because of growing pains. They have aggressively increased their enrollment in the last couple of years and their housing arrangements have been fodder for the local news outlets. This year the administration went on record saying that they had gotten those housing (over-population) problems cured, but that was a gargantuan stretch of anything resembling truth. This type of food shortage on the weekend is probably a spin-off logistical issue related to poor expansion planning, and from social media Parent Group reporting this is a continuation from problems that existed last year. I'm not much of a trouble-making sort, but this better not happen again or I will take it up the flagpole to the news people.
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and thus one more reason hot plates and ramen noodles are such big selling items in college towns..... 🍜;)

i don;t rmember a meal fee when i was at U of H... but then i was in an independent house dorm off campus ... (but it was still subect to college rules and regulatons.... which we broke on a regular basis).... we ran the pizza delivery guys ragged but also cooked a lot of ramen / saimen.....since we also had a refrigerator we kept eggs, fresh vegentables ..spices and fish squares-tofu on hand and added those into the mix to make it much better.....
 
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aleshanee said:
and thus one more reason hot plates and ramen noodles are such big selling items in college towns..... 🍜;)

i don;t rmember a meal fee when i was at U of H... but then i was in an independent house dorm off campus ... (but it was still subect to college rules and regulatons.... which we broke on a regular basis).... we ran the pizza delivery guys ragged but also cooked a lot of ramen / saimen.....since we also had a refrigerator we kept eggs, fresh vegentables ..spices and fish squares-tofu on hand and added those into the mix to make it much better.....
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The meal fee is only required for incoming freshman and if food is accessed properly it is probably financially justifiable (except in the vein of the ramen noodle college-kid lifestyle 😁). I wish he had a cook such as yourself among his crew, but alas, he might be the type that is highly prone to burning water. :p
 
ALAYMAN said:
The meal fee is only required for incoming freshman and if food is accessed properly it is probably financially justifiable (except in the vein of the ramen noodle college-kid lifestyle 😁). I wish he had a cook such as yourself among his crew, but alas, he might be the type that is highly prone to burning water. :p
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well... he would probably have to be in a coed dorm and a room with mostly females to have a cook like that.... i don;t recall any males that were at UH when i was there that cooked in their own dorm.... thus the pizza and fast food places did very well.... and still do in the university part of town.... ..but i do know a few of them lived off peanut butter sandwiches when they ran out of money each month.... those same people now say it built character for them to have to do that ...:rolleyes: ....i honestly can;t say anything about living in a dorm built my character - though i wasn;t actually in one for very long..... ..(it did serve to teach me i wasn;t as grown up and independent as i thought i was).... ...but all the rest of my college time was spent living at home and eating home cooked meals - and learning from a first class cook how to make them even better... :)
 
aleshanee said:
well... he would probably have to be in a coed dorm and a room with mostly females to have a cook like that.... i don;t recall any males that were at UH when i was there that cooked in their own dorm.... thus the pizza and fast food places did very well.... and still do in the university part of town.... ..but i do know a few of them lived off peanut butter sandwiches when they ran out of money each month.... those same people now say it built character for them to have to do that ...:rolleyes: ....i honestly can;t say anything about living in a dorm built my character - though i wasn;t actually in one for very long..... ..(it did serve to teach me i wasn;t as grown up and independent as i thought i was).... ...but all the rest of my college time was spent living at home and eating home cooked meals - and learning from a first class cook how to make them even better... :)
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He’s a creature of habit and already starting to fall into a rhythm of getting the same ole meals at the same places so I don’t think he’s going to start any reality cooking spin-off TV shows soon.😁
 
ALAYMAN said:
Today is the real first day of ALAYBOY's collegiate journey. He admitted has been a bit nervous/anxious this past week. He's a smart enough kid to handle stuff, but he is a bit of a nervous Nelly and introvert. Well, last night he went out to eat his Last Supper, lol. The University REQUIRES that all freshman (unless medically exempted) pay for an unlimited meal plan which costs (ME) $2500 per semester. UC is mostly a commuter school. They have maybe about 10 eating establishments scattered throughout campus that are meal plan partners (there are more eateries than that, but they would cost out of pocket money in addition to the meal plan expense). Since they are a commuter school the number of places to eat is reduced on the weekend to just two. When ALAYBOY went to get something to eat last night around 8 there was only one of those two open, and they close at 10, but that place is already his preferred place to eat so it's all good. He swiped his student ID to get in only to be told "we don't have any food left".:oops: How would you like to have (been forced) paid thousands of dollars for food, only to have your kid be told "get off my lawn kid"!:mad:

So, like that one show with John Quinones....

What would you do?
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I would be pissed. I would call the Student Services office and ask them for a refund for that meal. Or go to the local student newspaper and tell your story, or write an opinion piece for the local non student newspaper and lay out the story.
 
Bob Jones V said:
I would be pissed. I would call the Student Services office and ask them for a refund for that meal. Or go to the local student newspaper and tell your story, or write an opinion piece for the local non student newspaper and lay out the story.
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Like I said, I’ll be patient and see if it happens again. Right now I’m a little more concerned with the car thefts, robberies, burglaries, and rape that has occurred on campus in the first week.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Like I said, I’ll be patient and see if it happens again. Right now I’m a little more concerned with the car thefts, robberies, burglaries, and rape that has occurred on campus in the first week.
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I was being a little facetious.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Like I said, I’ll be patient and see if it happens again. Right now I’m a little more concerned with the car thefts, robberies, burglaries, and rape that has occurred on campus in the first week.
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Is this a normal week at CU? What kind of outfit are they running?
 
abcaines said:
Is this a normal week at CU? What kind of outfit are they running?
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The firsthand real-world experience of urban America is all new to me, so I can’t answer that question with any significant credibility . What I do know with certainty is that we (parents of students) get alerts that give us live-time reports from the campus police department and administration, so these crimes I’ve mentioned our factual, not merely hearsay.

On the other hand, there is reports via parents on social media outlets like Facebook Cinci Parents Page(s) testifying that people/parents/victims spoke to police officers while getting their crime reports and that there has been a spike in crime, due to soft-on-crime policy and staffing decisions (ie, 12 officers patrolling the parking garages being reduced to six). I suspect that some of the reports are concerned parents who don’t want to even think that any crime goes on where their freshman students are living, but the situation with the rape was pretty alarming. The perpetrator posed as an RA (fellow college student who is authorized and responsible for “policing” the student behavior for each floor of the residence hall) and the victim let them in their room at 3 AM believing them to be a legitimate agent of the university.
 
ALAYMAN said:
The firsthand real-world experience of urban America is all new to me, so I can’t answer that question with any significant credibility . What I do know with certainty is that we (parents of students) get alerts that give us live-time reports from the campus police department and administration, so these crimes I’ve mentioned our factual, not merely hearsay.

On the other hand, there is reports via parents on social media outlets like Facebook Cinci Parents Page(s) testifying that people/parents/victims spoke to police officers while getting their crime reports and that there has been a spike in crime, due to soft-on-crime policy and staffing decisions (ie, 12 officers patrolling the parking garages being reduced to six). I suspect that some of the reports are concerned parents who don’t want to even think that any crime goes on where their freshman students are living, but the situation with the rape was pretty alarming. The perpetrator posed as an RA (fellow college student who is authorized and responsible for “policing” the student behavior for each floor of the residence hall) and the victim let them in their room at 3 AM believing them to be a legitimate agent of the university.
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Like I said, what kind of [poultry excrement] outfit are they running there?

I'm sure CU isn't unique among big city universities for crime but if the board of regents isn't going to be proactive about protecting students, maybe parents should band together and remove their kids to other schools en masse.
 
abcaines said:
Like I said, what kind of [poultry excrement] outfit are they running there?

I'm sure CU isn't unique among big city universities for crime but if the board of regents isn't going to be proactive about protecting students, maybe parents should band together and remove their kids to other schools en masse.
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Again, not sure of the reliability of the info, but that has been urged, and reported as a possible recent consequence of their inability to sufficiently protect the kids.
 
A little follow up. ALAYBOY, like many adolescents, has plenty of poor eating habits. After the ordeal of being turned away on the weekend we told him to be more diligent to get to the eateries with ample time to spare. This week he stood in line for over 20 minutes at one of their approved meal plan establishments but clearly wasn’t going to make it to class on time based on the number of kids still ahead of him in line, so rather than being late for class he bailed out of the queue, and that was the only afternoon break he had for lunch. UCs logistics seem to have been made a mess by their push to increase enrollment too rapidly. More adulting skills by ALAYBOY shall be rapidly acquired, lol.
 
ALAYMAN said:
A little follow up. ALAYBOY, like many adolescents, has plenty of poor eating habits. After the ordeal of being turned away on the weekend we told him to be more diligent to get to the eateries with ample time to spare. This week he stood in line for over 20 minutes at one of their approved meal plan establishments but clearly wasn’t going to make it to class on time based on the number of kids still ahead of him in line, so rather than being late for class he bailed out of the queue, and that was the only afternoon break he had for lunch. UCs logistics seem to have been made a mess by their push to increase enrollment too rapidly. More adulting skills by ALAYBOY shall be rapidly acquired, lol.
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Oh, he will figure it out, I assure you. Missing a meal is not something a 17 or 18 year old will do often.
 
Bob Jones V said:
Oh, he will figure it out, I assure you. Missing a meal is not something a 17 or 18 year old will do often.
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Agreed, but mama is worried he is going to waste away, lol.
 
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