60% increase in Food+Housing at Virginia Tech in 3-4 years.

[Anonymous]

Was looking at cost of college, Virginia Tech in particular here: https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=virginia+tech&s=all&id=233921#expenses

See image for VT further below, I'm used to seeing ever increasing price of college attendance but any idea why Food and Housing expenses went from $10.110 to $16.550, i.e. over 60% increase in matter of 3-4 years???

[Anonymous]

Maybe this is how they ended up with an A+ food grade on Niche.

[Anonymous]

My UVA kid was so bummed about the school’s crappy food contract. Held up VT as the gold standard and wished UVA had done as well in creating its food policy.

[Anonymous]

VT is just trying to stay competitive with UVA and W&M. Its America price equals prestige in the mind of many, especially the DCUM crowd.

Plus great food is one of the things that makes them stand out and JMU is knocking at the door to become VA’s third best public school.

[Anonymous]

Did the balcony quit quarter beers?

[Anonymous]

Food is more expensive and they probably pay their dining hall and housekeeping staff far more than they did 3-4 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Are they building more dorms?

$10K is cheap for dorms. I think Mason is around $13,000, so $14,000 in a couple of years does not sound crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Food is more expensive and they probably pay their dining hall and housekeeping staff far more than they did 3-4 years ago.

If they use the same national company as my kid's university, their union i negotiating a huge pay increase for its workers, way above what they should be paid for unskilled labor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My UVA kid was so bummed about the school’s crappy food contract. Held up VT as the gold standard and wished UVA had done as well in creating its food policy.

Could you please elaborate on what was not good with the food contract?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Food is more expensive and they probably pay their dining hall and housekeeping staff far more than they did 3-4 years ago.

If they use the same national company as my kid's university, their union i negotiating a huge pay increase for its workers, way above what they should be paid for unskilled labor.

Thanks, are you seeing approx. similar price increases for food and housing at other colleges also over a similar timespan, ie 60%-ish increase over 3-4 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Food is more expensive and they probably pay their dining hall and housekeeping staff far more than they did 3-4 years ago.

True, however, 60% over 3-4 years? That's pretty steep.

[Anonymous]

This reflects the cost of food and housing generally. How exactly would a school get these things cheaper than everyone else in the community?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This reflects the cost of food and housing generally. How exactly would a school get these things cheaper than everyone else in the community?

True, housing cost have gone up....generally as housing on the open market has gone up in price, but we're talking about on-campus housing which has been in VT's ownership for who know for how long. Had they been smart, they'd refinanced the loans on those during the low-rate years and cost of housing should have done down, not up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My UVA kid was so bummed about the school’s crappy food contract. Held up VT as the gold standard and wished UVA had done as well in creating its food policy.

Could you please elaborate on what was not good with the food contract?

People constantly complain about the big dining halls because they are buffets with the quality you'd expect at a buffet. The meal plan lets you trade going to the buffets at the campus restaurants, so you don't have to go to the buffets if you don't want to.

[Anonymous]

Have you seen all the construction around campus? You have to pay for it somehow.

Also, that was really cheap to begin with.