My Gift to UR: $0

Allow me to preface this by saying that by and large, I have enjoyed attending the University of Richmond. However, somewhere along my journey from a lowly freshman to a mediocre senior, I have come to notice a number of things that make me resent the administration at Richmond to the point that I will not be donating to the senior class fund -- and I would advise my classmates to consider doing the same.

My grievances are based in a difference between what Richmond is and my understanding of what a university should be. A university should be an academic institution founded with the mission of fostering learning and the pursuit of knowledge, and that should be it. This does not describe Richmond.

In a recent series of events, my apartmentmates and I have been fined several times for having university furniture, trash and, most recently, recycle bins on our porches. Although I don't think that it is anyone's business if I want to live in squalor, the dean's office makes it theirs. It is true that I am guilty of an infraction against student handbook policy, so I suppose that I should be held accountable for my negligence. However, my graduation is contingent on the payment of these fines. My graduation! How are the state of my apartment and the degree that I have earned related? They're not.

This school cares more about making money than it does about serving as an academic learning environment.

Take a look at some of the other ways that Richmond swindles money out of its students. $20 to replace a lost SpiderCard. $30 for a parking ticket, even when the lot is empty. (I once got a ticket for parking at D-Hall during spring break: I was literally the only car in the lot.) $100 for a parking ticket on gamedays. $10 fee per add/drop for late registration?

Come on, it does not cost the university a nickel to enroll me in Macroeconomic Theory two days after the deadline. $17 to $33 for a Fire Shield(TM) surge protector from the bookstore? Why should I have to buy it, when the ridiculously expensive power strips are not mandated in classrooms or offices?

I understand the need to provide incentives for students to follow the rules, although I still don't understand the Fire Shield thing, other than an evil scheme with Fire Shield, Inc. bent on cheating poor college students out of their grocery money. However, linking the consequences to withholding students' hard earned diplomas is a bastardization of what an academic institution should stand for. Now, how to fix the problem?

Let the punishment fit the crime. If I don't pay three parking tickets in a row, tow my car. If I don't clean my back porch, put me on housing probation. Don't let me host events at my apartment. If I don't buy Fire Shield, then let me buy whatever brand I want! Keep the punishment within the realm of the infraction.

My point is that students simply allow the university to walk all over them. Even though I love being a student at Richmond, the university administration uses no sense in forming and enforcing disciplinary policy. Sure, holding me back from graduating forces me to pay my lousy parking ticket, but so would many other forms of extortion. So, consider rethinking your policies, Richmond, and then I will think about donating when I'm an alumnus.