Hey, School in Financial Crisis....

Announcer: Hey, school in financial crisis, you have had to cut classes, cut how many students can register for school, delay financial aid so students couldn't register for classes, furlough staff, and cut back hours for student services. What are you going to do now?

School: I'm going to put a $45,000 biometric hand scanner in the basement gym!

No, I'm not making that up. The school totally did that? Why? Because it's a cost-saving measure. Over what, you ask?

PRINTING STUDENT IDS THAT THEY WOULD HAVE TO PRINT ANYWAY.

Yes, the gym currently used a system where the student would use their ID to access the gym, but the school decided... Yeah, no. So they installed a $45,000 biometric hand scanner and used the argument that it was cheaper than printing student IDs.

Okay, yes, if in some magic world that means that there would be no need for student IDs at all. Let's see, just a small sample of reasons a student might need an ID:

1) To identify themselves as a student. I can tell that lately the school cares jack $*&@ about saving the STUDENTS money, but students still need the ID itself for a "student discount".

2) You need a student ID and a class schedule to get student email.

3) The student ID doubles as a card you can load money on to use at the printers and copiers in the library.

4) I probably didn't check this out completely, but you need a student ID to check out books in the library.

5) You need a student ID and a class schedule to get a parking pass or to buy transportation passes from Transportation Services.

You know, just some other reasons I can think of that building a biometric hand scanner in a gym isn't going to save money over printing student IDs.

Seriously. Do you realize the BENEFICIAL ways that money could have been spent?