Really, BU? Really?

So, I have my own laptop, and luckily, my own printer (it came free with the computer).  I'm so grateful for both of these things, but even I sometimes have to use the ResNET labs at the bottom of Warren Towers to print an article needed for class or an extra-long research paper draft.  As my friend Ellen Belinksy said at lunch today, "Sometimes I have to revise a paper a good five times.  That's 50 pages to print!"  Ellen has her own printer like I do, but just as BU is trying to cut costs by limiting computing and printing resources at Boston University, so are the students.  

True, BU is faced with a huge budget deficit--one of $10 million.  But raising tuition and room & board costs along with cutting out simple resources such as print labs is wrong.  Boston University's President Brown is not Robin Hood and the students at BU are not evil King Johns.

Charles Westington III writes in his BUndergound editorial that everyone at BU should have a personal computer and a personal printer in their room.  No exceptions.  He talks about someone using an excessive amount of his print quota, and then says, "Couldn't he just read the damn thing on his computer?  Maybe he was too poor to own a computer, and he shouldn't be at this school in the first place!"  First of all--and this may sound like I'm judging a book by its cover--but with a name like Charles Westington III, I'm not surprised you have this idea that Boston University is meant for the wealthy and the fact that you have this stuck-up view that everyone should be able to afford such a tiny expense as a personal laptop and printer.  

Hey, Charlie, did you know that not everyone that goes to BU can afford their own private island?  It may come as a shock to you, but not everyone gets everything they want handed to them on a silver platter.  Maybe the annual cost of $53,000 dollars for a BU education is simply a drop in the bucket to your Rolex-wearing, Rolls Royce-driving parents, but to the rest of us "poor people," $53,000 is a lot of money.  It's a lot of money that we expect to be put towards things that benefit our educations, like being able to print out required reading for classes at no additional cost.  You say that closing the ResNET labs is a great place to start cutting costs.  How about we start by using the "decorative" foods in the dining hall for something more practical--like eating?  How about we stop wasting money by offering free stuff to people for attending sports games that no one wants to go to?  And hey, one more thing, I heard this weekend that the Track and Tennis Center on Ashford St. keeps its lights on 24 hours a day.  Here's a crazy idea: save energy and money by just shutting off the lights!

Now, I'm going to go down to my empty print-lab and waste the university's money by printing out a research paper for a class I'm paying for.  Wait... something's not right here...

[Latest news regarding the ResNET labs.  Sounds pretty ambivalent if you ask me.]