$1.61: The cost of 20 ounces of Dr. Pepper in Café á la Cart.Remember the good ol’ days when 20 ounces of soda cost $0.99 (or $0.25 for Pepsi Blue, ick)? I do. In fact, when shopping in ANY other store that is not located on campus or in a sports arena, prices are still halfway reasonable. I understand that with budget cuts the University needs to rake in as much cash as possible.

But even before the cuts, the Student Union charged four bucks for an energy drink, and T-shirts in the campus bookstore cost $20. I have as much school spirit as the next guy, and I even like the new logos and mascot, but I refuse to pay that much money for a plain t-shirt with an “N” on it.

I’m of the opinion that Nicholls is not charging these prices to counter budget shortcomings but to take advantage of students (like they do with parking tickets). Students have no way to avoid paying these ridiculous prices short of driving off-campus to a gas station and losing a much coveted parking spot-not to mention wasting more money in the cost of gasoline than the soda costs.

I cannot stress how ridiculous these prices are or how outrageous it is that a student would have to leave campus to purchase decently-priced items-Wal-Mart sells T-shirts similar to the ones in the bookstore for $10.

I believe Hasbro produces an immensely popular board game that could describe the way Nicholls’ vendors work.

I am no economist, but I highly doubt there is a valid and reasonable explanation for taking advantage of students in this way.

Among the many things overpriced at Nicholls, I daresay textbooks are the most lucrative market-200 bones, or dollars in layman’s terms, for a paperback marketing textbook. Yeah, that’s reasonable. The bookstore does, however, take the students’ feelings into consideration with these high prices by offering a pristine textbook buyback program every semester. This program buys students’ books back for half of the original price, which isn’t that bad.

Oh, wait! They release new editions damn near every semester so that students cannot sell their books back. This is an even bigger money-making scheme than ShamWow. No matter how economical it may be, releasing new editions with page number changes-which every student knows that is all the publishers modify in “new” editions-is unethical and just a way for the textbook companies to make a quick buck.

Nicholls, stop “nickel and diming” your students; they are unhappy enough as it is.