If you are a student living on campus this Fall semester, chances are high that you know about the Seawolf All-Inclusive Experience (ALLEX) initiative. ALLEX is a newly-introduced program designed to reward housing residents with complimentary favors, including a $250 credit for learning materials, free parking this Fall, one daily free drip coffee, additional free events for students, and a myriad of housing-specific guarantees.
Last semester, when news of the ALLEX program reached students, Seawolves were divided. Some students were excited about the incentives offered to them in exchange for living on campus, but others felt that the school seemed to be bribing students to return, as they voiced their opinions to the STAR last March. Additionally, students not living on campus felt alienated because the ALLEX program is designed only for campus residents.
Some Seawolves are also unhappy because the email sent out on March 1, announcing ALLEX stated that “Culinary Services dining venues will be open,” but only the Kitchens and Sip, the campus coffee shop that closes at 2 p.m., are open this semester.
Now that the ALLEX program has taken effect, students remain disenchanted with the university’s efforts to entice them. They primarily enjoy the free residential parking, but feel frustrated with the limitations of the other ALLEX benefits.
“I feel like the ALLEX ‘free coffee’ thing really only applies to one group of people: people living on campus that can be at Sip at any time and people who drink caffeine,” said a SSU third-year biology major. “There are no other venues open for food besides the cafeteria, and as for making more events free to students, events are not something that people can always go to if they’re busy, especially with students trying to balance their jobs, schoolwork, and lives. I feel like the university’s resources could be allocated in better ways if they were trying to make students feel more valued on campus.”
Another Seawolf ran into problems while using the $250 learning materials credit provided by ALLEX.
A third-year anthropology major shared her experience, saying, “I ordered all my books through ALLEX and I had $60 left….It took forever for the books I ordered to get to me, and then I got an email that said the last book I ordered was cancelled. When I went to pick up a different book, I asked why my last order was cancelled, and they told me I had insufficient funds. I asked how that happened because I was sure I had $60 left over. And they said that they had to give me two new textbooks instead of the used books I ordered, because they ran out of used books. I feel like they should have covered that cost themselves because I was not prepared to pay the price out of my own pocket for new books, when I specifically ordered used books so that the ALLEX program would cover everything. I felt so frustrated.”
And while the cost for room and board this semester decreased by 3.43%, according to collegetuitioncompare.com, the cost of tuition still increased, as it has been every year, even when classes shifted entirely to remote-learning and campus resources were severely reduced.
It is no secret that Sonoma State has had financial concerns for years, with declining enrollment, a multimillion dollar budget deficit, and the strain brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. ALLEX seems to be an effort to draw students back to on-campus living while spending as little as possible, and this fact was not lost on Seawolves.
Restaurants on campus are still closed, construction and tree removal mar the grounds, tuition is still increasing, and students do not feel pacified by the miscellaneous assortment of ALLEX benefits offered only to residents.
