Tipping servers
Being a poor college student has its drawbacks. For the times that you do go out to eat in a fancy restaurant you have to think, “Am I willing to spend more money to give the server a decent tip?” The answer should always be yes.
Tipping is a great way to thank the person who served you and show you appreciate them. Just because you don’t think you have enough money doesn’t mean you should deprive someone from money they, through cultural tradition, deserve.
In the state of Utah, tipped employees get paid a minimum wage of $2.13. Employers expect their staff to get enough tips to be able to make a good living. Two dollars and 13 cents an hour is nowhere close to enough money to make a living on its own, so servers need these tips in order to make ends meet.
Nearly all college students either are or know someone who works as a server. Put yourself in their shoes and think about how you would want to be treated as a server. You would want the extra help that tips bring, so you should tip them as well because we are all trying to save and budget our money in the best way possible.
Giving the little extra that you have can help and motivate a server in several ways, including to be more kind toward the people they serve and to enjoy work that much more. Servers work hard and don’t get paid nearly enough. Making sure to tip would make your day and your server’s day that much brighter. Always be sure to tip servers to the best of your ability, even if it’s only a little.
— Danielle Garlick
Beaver Dam, Arizona
Homeless week
Winter semester is flying by and you’re feeling great. You applied for housing for Spring Term months ago and you can’t wait to move into your new place right after your last final. However, you then take a look at the calendar and realize there’s a one-week gap between the end of your current housing contract and your move-in date. Welcome to homeless week.
For two weeks out of the year, students who choose to stay at school during the spring and summer find themselves with nowhere to live and nowhere to keep their stuff as they look forward to moving into their new apartment. This creates unnecessary stress on students academically and financially. These students spend much of their time during finals week worrying about where they will keep their things and sleep at night instead of studying for their tests.
In addition, students face the possibility of having to relinquish their hard-earned money to find a storage facility and find a place to sleep for those seven nights. Aren’t students stressed enough? Why do apartment complexes implement policies that create homeless week? Homeless week should be removed to improve the lives of our Utah County students.
A simple way to fix this senseless problem is to lengthen housing contracts by a mere seven days. Apartment complexes claim they use this week to clean the rooms, but anyone who has walked into a student apartment knows the only time they are cleaned is for the monthly cleaning checks done by the occupants. Complexes must get rid of homeless week.
— Lisi Merkley
Pleasant Grove, Utah
Reporter Opinion
School funding
School funding is routinely a heavily debated topic for state and national lawmakers, and that funding can largely impact a student’s experience both inside and outside of the classroom. With this impact in mind lawmakers should seriously consider how changes to funding will impact students across the state.
Typically, extracurricular activities like field trips and art and music classes see the greatest deficits because they are seen as ancillary or not necessary. But an article in the Atlantic suggests extracurricular activities can be just as important as core curriculum and test scores when it comes to a student’s success and overall well-being. Extracurricular activities can help students gain self-esteem and reduce the likelihood that they’ll engage in risky behaviors like drug use, delinquency and illicit sexual activity.
Another factor to consider when discussing school budgeting is whether it should be a state or national discussion in the first place. There are 14 school districts in Utah and each of these districts vary in their socioeconomic demographic and in student needs. While one district’s library and school choir might be able to thrive independent of additional funding, another district’s program might desperately rely on additional funding in order to keep afloat.
This disparity can make it very difficult to fairly regulate school fees and school funding. Even though the uniformity and consistency of state or national regulation to help determine the costs related to extracurricular may appear to be appealing, with such a range in socioeconomic standing it may make more sense to leave some decisions up to the discretion of the school districts.
Ultimately, it is clear these decisions cannot be made rashly, they require research, thought and debate so that an adequate solution can be developed. Providing a well-rounded education for youth is crucial to the future of the country and that includes extracurricular programs.
— Riley Waldman
Universe Web Editor
