What we need in Laramie: Grown-up Book-it

For full-time students with a job in addition to all of their other responsibilities, the issue of food can quickly become a problem. Do you work more hours in order to afford more meals, or do you study more in order to maintain your GPA?

While this is always be a problematic decision, there is a way to ease the hunger pangs. If you dig deep into your subconscious, you might remember the Pizza Hut Book-It program. As a reward for putting in a predetermined amount of reading, elementary school-aged students were given free personal pan pizzas. In reality, those snot-nosed kids do not need that food as much as we do.

Here is my solution—provide an incentive program for collegiate academic excellence. Or for good attendance, whatever unit of measurement that works. The point is that we need a grown-up Book-It program. As a reward for putting school first, students will have the opportunity to not have to pay for a meal.

It may not seem like much, but everybody has horror stories where they just do not have enough money for food. Maybe you had to pay for car repairs. Perhaps your direct deposit still has not come in. Whatever the case may be, we have all experienced something similar. A free meal could certainly make a person’s week easier.

Granted, such a program would be costly. A personal pan pizza is not going to sooth the huddled masses. A bigger reward would be a necessity. Yet this is not an impossible plan to execute. All it would require is collaboration with the University.

Imagine a partnership between UW and, say, Qdoba. In exchange for allowing exceptional students to eat free or at a reduced price, UW could promise to use Qdoba for a certain number of catered events per year. In this case, everybody wins. Qdoba gets extra promotion, students get to eat more, study more and work less and UW gets to reap the statistical rewards of a more focused student body.

Going to college is a never-ending balancing act. Sometimes people have the odds weighed against them and something has to give. Sure, there is any number of ways to try and improve the situation. Sure, not any one of them will be able to single-handedly make college easy. Nevertheless, improvements can be made. It seems like this one–one in which every party benefits–would be a pretty easy sell.

So, local restaurants, university higher-ups, my dear collegiate peers, success is within our reach. Campus-wide hunger can be curbed. Money can be made. All it takes is some implementation of the described system.