Dining Dollars and Bonus Bucks should follow in Gannon’s footsteps

Miranda Miller, Copy editor

As a senior, life gets busier and more complex. Not only do I need to keep track of school projects and papers (with varying degrees of success), but I need to keep track of when grad school applications are due.

Am I going to take the GRE?  What are the essay requirements? Are there fellowship opportunities?

It’s enough to make a girl’s head spin! The last thing I need to be worried about is nourishment and medicine.

Life would be so much easier if I could just use the same currency on campus and in places around the city, like the opportunity that Gannon students have with their GU Gold accounts.

According to Gannon’s website, students can use GU Gold in places like Eat’n Park and Tops, whereas our Dining Dollars and Laker Loot are only viable oncampus.

According to an article published in September 2011 in the Merciad, the OneCard office dissolved the off-campus partnerships due to a decline in usage and the fact that the program wasn’t even paying for itself.

I think  restarting the program is worth another shot.

I use my refund check to pay my bills and buy my groceries for the semester, and the check comes well after I need to purchase groceries and other household items. There is almost a full month’s time that I need to wait to get groceries, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

My saving grace is the ability to put some of my refund toward Dining Dollars, which is available almost immediately after the semester begins.

However, eating every meal oncampus is hardly economical and it surely isn’t as healthy and wholesome as I’d like.

I’m sure there are also many parents who would prefer that they put money on the OneCard rather than in the checking accounts of their children.

Many parents may not have access to their student’s banking branch to make a deposit, and it takes a few days to process deposits anyway.

Some students may not feel comfortable giving their parents their routing and account numbers, and I don’t even want to fathom a parent mailing their son or daughter cash.

It would be much more secure to allow parents to deposit funds in an account that not only isn’t attached to the student’s other finances, but can only be used for groceries or for other household supplies.

Besides, Gannon kids can get burritos at Moe’s or Qdoba with their version of Dining Dollars.

Who doesn’t want their parents to help them get chips and queso?