The University of New Hampshire just made a “mistake” that costs almost as much as a year’s tuition for in-state students, according to Cosmopolitan.
The school’s Holloway Commons dining hall recently underwent renovations that were included in the school’s $10.5 million hospitality and dining renovations budget. The most lavish addition to the dining hall was an LED lighted dining table—with a price tag of $17,570, the The New Hampshire reports. Compare that to the yearly cost of tuition for in-state students, which the school estimates to be about $17,624.
School administrators claim that they didn’t know how much the table actually cost until they read about it in the university newspaper, according to WMUR, the local ABC News station.
There’s only room for 16 students to sit at the table, but at least that handful of diners gets something of a show. One side of the table has room for cooking demonstrations, and the LED lighting is controllable.
“Some would suggest it adds to the ambiance, experience and draw of guests to have a meal plan at UNH,” Dining Hall Operations Director Jon Plozdik told The New Hampshire.
Some students are annoyed at the purchase, especially because a degree from UNH isn’t exactly a bargain. “I have a lot of student loans I’m going to have to pay off, and my family’s working pretty hard to pay off all that stuff. I mean, we could find better ways to spend money than LED tables,” sophomore Griffin Sisk told WUMR. Additionally, Boston.com lists a series of sarcastic tweets from students voicing their opinions about the table.
Reactions have been mixed among staff, with spokeswoman Erika Mantz telling WMUR, “Immediately, we came out and said, ‘This was wrong. This was a mistake,’” and that it “won’t happen again.” On the other hand, Plozdik is standing by the purchase in his comments to The New Hampshire, saying, “It cost $17,570, including delivery from the workshop in Chicago, which we considered reasonable for a custom piece of furniture made exclusively for UNH.”
Unfortunately, the school paper reported that as of April 20, the table’s LED display had stopped working. We don’t know if it’s been fixed by now or not, but let’s hope so—After all this controversy, students probably at least want to enjoy the light show.