Clarity at the Caf

YU's cafeteria prices are putting new meaning to the word "exorbitant." The same YU meal plan which cost a mere $1,300 per year in 1998-99, has more than doubled to the staggering amount of $2,620 today. To be sure, high prices are to be expected in an economy that has been on the decline in recent months-food prices are high and so caf prices are high.

Additionally, YU does try to alleviate some costs by offering a relatively cheap shabbat meal fee and keeping the price of certain food items, such as fish, lower than they should be.

For the financially prudent YU student, however, it is difficult to believe that the caf, which runs a monopoly on food at YU, cannot lower the prices to a more acceptable level. The caf's prices on some items can sometimes run for twice as much at your local convenience store; they are simply demanding more than should be necessary for the items they sell.

YU food services claim that in order to run a cost-effective business, both revenue and consistent demand need to be assured. By charging money up front and requiring dorm students to be on the caf plan, they can be confident about their financial profit as well as the amount of food they need to prepare on a day-to-day basis.

This argument seems odd. The local eateries here in Washington Heights - indeed, all successful restaurants everywhere in the world - always seem to manage to calculate the amount of food they need to make each day while still turning a profit. True, the caf may at first under- or overshoot the amount of food they need to prepare, but like Goldilocks, we're sure they'll eventually get it right.

And we here at The Commentator don't even mind if the caf overcharges for their food. Any business can charge whatever it wants for anything it sells. Yet when being part of dorm life means that students are forced by the institution to pay exorbitant food prices, the situation becomes untenable. We're being made an offer we can't refuse. At the very least, therefore, the financial data for food services should be made public. If $9.25 for chicken a la king is what Yeshiva University needs to charge in order to eke out a meager profit, then so be it. But if inefficiencies or inflated profit margins are being borne by the student body, than we should be allowed to know that as well.

And a shock of transparency is not the only way to relieve student's pecuniary woes. Why not appoint a student committee to work with food services and YU administrators? If YU students are concerned about how much they are paying, than the administration should respond by working in conjunction with students in order to assuage frustration.

Either way, the administration needs to plainly demonstrate that the high prices, while unfortunate, are unavoidably necessary.