Editorial: Charging at the U-Store

The reasons for permitting students to charge purchases to their student accounts are simple matters of convenience. Because Paw Points must be purchased in advance, it requires substantially more student effort to employ them than in the case of student charge. Furthermore, because student charge is accepted at nearly all on-campus stores — it is accepted, for example, at all the cafes and stores operated by Dining Services — many students employ Paw Points infrequently, if at all. Paw Points purchased for use at the U-Store are of little general use to students, and consequently it is particularly inconvenient that the U-Store is unable to also accept student charge. Permitting the use of charge in addition to Paw Points would meaningfully increase the ease with which students may make U-Store purchases on their proxes.

The U-Store said in an email to the Editorial Board that it would like to have the ability to charge student accounts as a method of payment. This desire is quite sensible: Given the U-Store’s financial difficulties in the past few years, any increase in the accessibility and convenience of shopping there will likely help the business. So far, the University has been more resistant, raising concerns about the cost of implementing such a system at the U-Store. However, the University has in the past granted the ability to charge student accounts for purchases to other third-party merchants, such as Labyrinth Books. The University, then, has correctly recognized that it ought to incur such costs when doing so will benefit the student body.

Allowing students to charge their U-Store purchases to their student accounts will help both the student body and the U-Store itself. While we recognize that the University will incur some cost to implement this system, those costs are justified by the increase the system would bring to the convenience of making purchases at the U-Store. Therefore, the University ought to develop an agreement with the U-Store to implement such a system.