Simple solution

While every student at GW is up in arms about juniors being forced to join the meal plan – and it is obvious the GW administration does not want to lose money that they would have made from meals – I can only see one clear solution: expand the MC Store.

Changing the MC Store from an ill-stocked, tiny convenience store into a small grocery store could only produce profit for GW and consumer satisfaction on the students’ behalf. Let me explain.

If GW made more products available to students at a more competitive price, students forced to pay for points wouldn’t mind quite as much, since many of their needed groceries could then be purchased with these points. They wouldn’t have to endure those tasteless creations from J Street. All students would be able to spend their money where they want, when they want.

Even students like me – off campus and not on a meal plan – would be content. This new MC Store would be a closer, more convenient place to shop. As of now, I never shop at the MC Store. Its prices are too high and it doesn’t have many products. I might as well walk the extra distance to Safeway. I have no reason to shop at the MC Store. GW could dig into these currently untapped resources – students like myself – and generate even more profit than it does right now.

Let’s follow in the footsteps of Brandeis University. It is a smaller school, with about 3,000 undergraduate students. It used to have an on-campus store much like ours. Last year it expanded, making prices more competitive and carrying a larger range of items. So far, so good. Students are enjoying more options and the school is enjoying its profit. By expanding the MC Store, GW – administration and students – could also be enjoying itself.

-Carolyn Stromberg
sophomore