It’s difficult to complain about millennials complaining about not having enough when a college spends close to a quarter of a million dollars on a f*cking conference room table. That’s right, folks. Administrators at Kean University in Union, New Jersey dropped $219,000 on a custom-built table from China.
According to NJ.com:
The 22-foot oak table was specially manufactured by a company in China, where Kean recently opened a campus, and serves as the centerpiece of a new conference center.
While school officials have reportedly dismissed criticism of the purchase, students on Monday said they were surprised the public university would pay so much.
“That’s ridiculous,” freshman Melrose Johnson said. “It’s a table. You’re just sitting around it.”
“I mean, does it talk to you or something?” added Johnson’s friend, sophomore Sydney Espada.
Despite students’ outcries, officials maintain the table’s necessity and functionality. They even took great pains to detail its recent uses to the reporter, claiming a rousing “roundtable discussion on the heroin abuse epidemic” was had by those in attendance. (Though I’m still not sure what this has to do with a big table from China.)
Some students, however, said they didn’t see how a high-tech conference table would affect their educational experiences.
“It doesn’t really benefit us,” freshman Nellie Marrira said. “They could have gotten any table.”
Edson Mendez, a sophomore and commuter student, said there are probably other places on campus that could have used the money.
“I’m kind of at a loss for words,” he said. “It’s a table. How much do you really need to spend?”
However, the best response came from user “IAMPANDACAT” in the NJ.com comments section. He/she/it suggested a trip to IKEA, and even provided a helpful map for university officials.
Can you imagine a bunch of retirement-ready higher education administrators trying to follow IKEA instructions for furniture construction? That’s a reality show I’d watch on an endless loop.
Source: NJ.com