Software Goof Belies Fast-Food Fixes
from the that's-a-lot-of-Taco-Bell dept
When I was a freshman in college, a Taco Bell opened up in the city for the first time, which was (I kid you not) front page news in the local newspaper (yes, that's what happens when you go to a college in the middle of nowhere). I definitely spent my fair share of time and money picking up late night goodies from Taco Bell, but probably not enough to equal my entire room and board costs. That's why some parents were wondering why a charge of $3,200 (matching room & board costs) was erroneously listed as being for Taco Bell on the latest tuition bill for some students from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Apparently, it was a computer glitch, but I'm still curious why there was any possibility of charging anything to Taco Bell as part of a student's tuition.
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Consumership and College
Students could pay for their meals with cash, credit card, or the school's debit cards, which removed money from a checking account the school provided from the students tuition (part of Room & Board.) Students could add money to this checking account to pay for more food. About a year before I graduated, the school introduced a line of "smart cards" which the issued card would hold the balance of the checking account in its CPU. So it was entirely possible that this school had a similar program (except that students could build up a tab and have that added to their tuition...instead of using a debit card.)
In this day and age, most colleges are figuring out that it is cheeper and easier to have a third party run things than to do it yourself, as most of the college run food facilities went out of business when the fast food restaurants moved in...the economy at its finest. I just wonder how healthy it was.
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