Nicholls State University’s policy of mandated meal plans for on-campus residents appears to have been written under the assumption that students have never-ending pocket books and an inability to feed themselves.

Why are residents forced to purchase meal plans? Meal plans cost too much and considerably raise the price of living on campus.

The cheapest meal plan a resident can obtain is $1,304 per semester and allows a student to eat 10 meals in the cafeteria a week, with $145 in munch money that can be used anywhere on campus where food is sold. Added to the cheapest dorm living option (a double room in Ellender, Calecas or Babington Halls), it actually costs $3,070 to live in a dorm.

Tuition alone is $1,725 for Louisiana residents as full-time students, according to the Nicholls Web site. So for a Louisiana resident to be a full-time student and live on campus, it costs at least $4,795 per semester. Keep in mind that this cost still does not cover the many sorts of fees usually included in tuition, such as lab fees, card activation, library fees and etc.

Many students who have to live on campus – as campus residency is mandatory unless the student lives with family, is married, is a nontraditional student or has a hardship that requires exemption – choose a dorm over the La Maison du Bayou Apartments because the dorms are cheaper.

The base price for a four-bedroom apartment is $3,730. However, this price includes a $425 declining balance, which is considered a meal plan and can be used like munch money, though the necessity of such is confused once it is realized that each apartment has a full-service kitchen.

With tuition, living in La Maison du Bayou Apartments costs $10,910 per year. This is $1,320 more than the $9,590 it costs to live in a dorm for a year.

This sounds like a big difference and a reasonable excuse to live in the dorms, but if a student takes the approximately $6,150 they spend to live on campus for two semesters in a dorm with meal plans they may not have the time to use (as the cafeteria is only open at certain times during the day) or will not use because they do not like Nicholls’ meal options, they can afford an off-campus apartment for $560 a month for 10 months, the amount of time spent living in the dorms, including the weeks most dorm options do not allow students to spend there because of holidays.

Although there are not many apartments available for under $600 a month in the area, there are quite a few options that can be shared between two or three other people for less than that price for each resident, which seems to be the far better option when you consider that you will no longer have to deal with random room searches, guest check-ins and getting in trouble for contraband items such as candles and thumbtacks.

Living on campus is a fun experience, Nicholls, but the cost is a little high, don’t you think?