The fate of dining dollars remaining in students’ accounts at the end of each semester has been a common concern for many at SUNY New Paltz, according to Student Association (SA) Executive Vice President Eve Stern.
During a student senate meeting on Tuesday, April 15, Stern said that Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS) uses the remaining dining dollars toward scholarship funds.
CAS Executive Director Steve Deutsch said that at the end of each academic year, $20,000 to $80,000 dining dollars remain unused. While half of the amount goes to Sodexo, as part of their contract, the rest goes to the Career Resource Center (CRC) which uses the money toward an applicable scholarship that facilitates internship opportunities.
“Let’s say you’re doing an internship in New York City and you can’t afford the rent while you’re doing your internship because your internship is either low-paying or non-paying, you can give an application for the scholarship and then a panel reviews it, and if your application is accepted, they’ll fund your internship up to a certain dollar level,” said Deutsch.
Beth Anne King, the internship coordinator at the CRC, said the CAS Internship Stipend has been available to students since spring 2006. Since then, a total of $163,300 has been awarded among 159 students. King also said any student doing an internship for academic credit is eligible for the scholarship. In addition, students who apply must also show some financial need.
Because a lot of students feel like they are being “ripped off” at the end of each semester, Stern said she was happy to hear that dining dollars were being given back to students in some way.
Deutsch agreed with Stern and said that the scholarship is a direct way to give money back to students.
“CAS isn’t here to make a profit,” he said. “CAS is here to return whatever profits we do have directly to the students so this is a very direct way to take the money that is left over that students don’t use and give it right back to students who really need it.”
For more information about the CAS Internship stipend, students can contact the CRC.