In my position, one must champion the student body in every regard. I have the privilege of seeing the fantastic experiences that occur on this campus thanks to you. I am amazed at the feats of academic achievement and dedication that you display every week. As a student body, we do some great things, but overall, we have a pretty dumb attitude when it comes to what we expect from each other and the Institute while we are here. That is why, my fellow student, I have a bone to pick with you!
With a cost of attendance at just over $45,000, no one is going to argue with you when you say we go to a pricey school. When you start breaking that number down, things can get interesting. Over 80 percent of Rensselaer students receive what you might call significant financial aid. It is, however, rare to find individuals at either end of the spectrum with no financial aid or a full ride. Therefore, it stands to reason that most of us are still paying a good amount to attend classes at RPI. Yet everyone seems to have that $45,000 ticket price stuck in their head and some of us use it as justification for some absurd actions. What about $45,000 gives you the notion that you can do or have whatever you want?
Now, I don’t know about your financial situation, but mine is fairly straightforward. I pay for everything myself. I pay my tuition; I pay my rent; I pay for my food; and I pay for my entertainment. When I signed the papers, I knew what I was getting into and decided that the cost of attending Rensselaer was well worth it. As a senior graduating with dual degrees, I am extremely pleased to say I am 100 percent satisfied with my time here at RPI. But nowhere in my admissions information or tuition agreements (and yes, I pulled them out of my files) did I find information suggesting that my $45,000 sealed an all-inclusive contract with the Institute to meet my every desire.
I’m willing to bet that these agreements have not changed significantly in the last three years. So why is it that I consistently hear people making justifications along the lines of, “I paid $45,000 to come here, I already paid for it,” as they walk off with things that do not belong to them? The obvious case here is those reams of printer paper that miraculously disappear within minutes if left out in the open. In the last few months, I have had numerous evenings where students come knocking on my office door looking for help because the locked and bolted Union printers (which are refilled every day before the office closes) have already been cleared out of the 3,000 sheets of paper they hold. Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to in order to save $3.99. We have had decorative plants just up and disappear from offices in the Union. More than once, we have caught people trying to take sofas and chairs from the Union’s lobby! Do I really need to point out that you are just stealing from your peers? Sure, spread out over around 6,000 students, it is just pennies, but you are still stealing and it is still wrong.
Unfortunately, as you step away from the Union, the situation becomes far more detrimental and annoying. The Mueller Center’s struggle against this problem is a prime example. Again, it is a student-operated and student-funded facility which is run for the exclusive benefit of students. But you as students feel so entitled to “getting your money’s worth” that we are forced to include thousands of dollars in contingencies for the Mueller Center just to offset the cost of stolen resources. Do you want to use a five-, eight-, 10-, or 12-pound free weight? Good luck with that. Someone just put a set in their gym bag and walked out. Want to use something as simple as a jump rope, a medicine ball, or a forearm developer? Thanks to the fact that we’ve had to replace several sets over the last two years, instead of having them out on racks for you to use freely, you now have to stop your workout and go sign them out with your ID at the desk. This sort of thing just disgusts me. Do you really feel that your ability to lift a few weights in your room or at your apartment is more important than respecting the other 3,999 people who use the gym on any given week?
I know this discussion will not stop you from doing it. It probably will not even change your attitude toward your tuition dollars. But next time you are walking off with a packet of paper or putting a free weight into your gym bag, make sure you understand what you are doing. Think about what your friends would say to you if you asked each them if you can steal a couple pennies.
