By Philip Garcia | Contributor
When the Baylor Men’s Basketball team entered the NCAA Tournament, the school released a new hoodie. Now I will admit, this hoodie looked awesome. When I first saw the hoodie on the Baylor Instagram page, I knew I was destined to wear it.
That was until I saw the price for hoodie on the bookstore website. While I knew it was going to be expensive, I thought $70 was pushing it. That is a lot for someone to spend on a hoodie, and it’s especially expensive for a college student.
Baylor should offer the students a discount for the merchandise that they put out. Baylor should offer this discount because the merchandise means more to students while they are attending school. With Baylor already being expensive, paying for merch can be too much.
With Baylor’s sports teams having the success that they’ve had over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that the limited time apparel is very pricy. I don’t think that is a problem because they are limited time for a reason, and a lot of people will want to have them for the memories. While alumni that have jobs will have the money to spend it on hoodies and other items, students who currently attend Baylor don’t.
There’s no problem with alumni getting the merch, but the limited apparel that only comes once is more special to the people who are actually attending the school. A student discount would help students be able to get the special edition apparel. Valuing the student is something that a university should always do, and I think offering a student discount would do just that.
Having a t-shirt such as the Sugar Bowl from last year should be something that a student should be able to comfortably purchase and have for years to remember. Prices such as the ones for the hoodie make that less of a possibility and that’s why a student discount is so important.
Also having a student discount makes it easier for those who are here with the help of student loans. Baylor is an expensive school to attend, and there is a good number of students who can’t throw around money for clothes that they offer at the bookstore. It stopped me from buying the hoodie, and I know many others who didn’t or couldn’t buy it because of the price.
There are many factors that affect a student’s ability to buy this hoodie. A lot of us don’t have a job to help finance us for more than just food and housing. We also have to spend hundreds of dollars every semester for books and other materials that the classes require. Expensive merch only adds to the amount of money we put into this school, and a student discount would help students and their families out when making the decision to buy the clothes.
With Baylor winning its first men’s basketball championship, I know there must be absurdly expensive items both students and alumni have their eyes set on. I feel terribly for the biggest Baylor basketball fans who will miss out on the chance to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Having a student discount helps those who can’t afford an expensive hoodie and will help students cherish Baylor memories.
Philip is a sophomore Management Information Systems major from Spring.
