Shall I Attend Class For You, Sir?
Valet parking is so last year.
Entitlement, excess, ostentatious display now seem so retro, so Gilded Age. The new order of 2009 calls for saving, frugality and self-parking. Except, perhaps at places like Florida International or High Point Universities, where glimmers of “privilege and pamper” suggest that some students (and perhaps their parents) still enjoy the illusion of College Neverland, a place where one never has to “grow up” to financial reality.
There are times when extreme examples can make an even larger point. Colleges are beginning to consider new ways to draw admissions by not only “beefing” up curricula, but by adding frills and perks more suited to a stay at the Four Seasons. Florida International has a valet parking service while Florida Atlantic University is considering a similar service to consider saving some students a 7 1/2 minute walk, about 1/3 of a mile. High Point, though, takes the cake. Literally. Each of 2000 students receives a birthday card, signed by the university president and enclosed with a Starbucks gift card. How special.
In fact, High Point, in North Carolina, is undoubtedly the most egregious example of the pampered student life. An ice cream truck circles the campus daily (offering over 500 treat choices) live music resounds from the campus cafeteria, wake-up calls are offered, and students’ personal movie and snack choices are recorded so that they are readily available, apparently at a whim. Oh, and a new multiplex building has just been added, featuring a movie theater, sports bar and steakhouse. Don’t students just wake up some days and wonder when they fell down the rabbit hole? Wonderland or Neverland? You can pick your own literary analogy.
While High Point may be an exception in extravagance, other colleges do seem to be tiptoeing in its pearly wake. Mental Floss reports that things like free laundry and ski passes, personalized birthday cakes, reduced “green fees” for your gold outings are being vetted at places like Stanford, Ohio University and NYU. With college prospects financially re-routing themselves to state schools, community colleges and even trade schools, the bigger, more expensive redoubts of learning appear to be searching for ways to broaden their appeal. What better way than free movie passes?
Okay, so what does all this say? Well, again, it comes down to learning that financial self-reliance and true independence comes without price supports and birthday gifts. There is no mom “wake up call” in the real world, except that inner bell which charges your ambition and moves you to success. When colleges and universities create fuzzy auras relating to life at high-end hotels, they are suppressing the truth and impact of lifestyle and money matters after graduation.
Laundry? Do your own. I do.
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