RPS expansion not complete

All freshmen have to live on campus, but after their first year, most students move to off-campus or Greek housing. In an effort to provide an on-campus alternative to luxury apartments elsewhere in Bloomington, Residential Programs and Services has presented plans for major renovations to Ashton Center, and the trustees have approved the project. \nThe living space will be styled as apartments, and the exterior will be elegant "collegiate Gothic." These renovations will accomplish several important things for the campus. The northeast part will improve aesthetically, which will only add to the campus' beauty. It will keep a few hundred more upperclassmen on campus, which will add to vitality on campus after classes are over. The renovated Ashton will also feature a convenience store and another place to use meal points will be welcome. \nWhile new apartment space sounds great, more students would benefit from competitive food service in their dorms. Too often, dining options are a major source of frustration for students who want to make the most of limited funds.\nWe want to simply remind RPS to do their utmost to keep campus housing as economical for students as possible. One area of improvement would be more flexibility with meal points. Because students living in a normal dorm room, as opposed to a campus apartment, are forced to purchase large amounts of meal points, those students have very little choice as to where they can buy food. A contributing factor to low retention rates for on-campus housing just might be required meal-point plans and the sky-high prices on RPS food.\nStudents could buy a gallon of skim milk at the grocery store or gas station for $2 or $31, but at the dining hall, eight pint bottles cost well over $12 (the convenience stores are too frequently sold out of the quart cartons of milk, for obvious reasons).\nPerhaps our highly esteemed business school could be contracted to provide some consulting to RPS to find solutions to these annoyances. RPS is a massive, complex operation, but RPS ought to work with students to reduce prices for food.\nRPS has set its sights high with Ashton and must now set its own standards just as high. It must follow through vigorously on these plans and make sure the new Ashton Center and all its resources are accessible and student-friendly. Providing safe, sufficient housing for thousands of students each year is not a small or simple task, but it is important to do it right. \nWe look forward to watching the campus become more useful and beautiful at the same time, and we trust that the plans for Ashton will be executed cost-effectively and thoroughly.\nAshton's renovation, as part of IU's expansion plans, can improve 780 students' quality of life in apartment-style housing, but other reforms within RPS could do much more to make life on campus cheaper for thousands.