Is the University of Hartford serious? Like…really? With all the complaints the school gets on a daily basis about their parking issues, poor housing situations and their food service; they decided to, yet again, make a move that is questionable and affects future students.

I don’t know if Hartford is trying to retain their student body or if they want to keep pushing away students, forcing them to transfer to another university that actually cares about their needs.

A press release was announced that will change it so that the Gengras Student Union will not be having their meals count towards the meal plan anymore. To clarify, all of the Gengras meals can only be paid with cash, dining dollars and Hawk Cash; no longer giving students the option to swipe their cards for the standard meal.

Since the University is going through a renovating process with the rebuilding of Hawks Nest and Commons in the spring and throughout the summer, food will count as meals only in those two areas and at Konover at night for their sandwiches.

Not only is this decision ridiculous, asinine and unwarranted, but also it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the university.

Tutition for the 2014-2015 academic year is going up, yet again, by around three to four percent and Hartford already has the reputation as a university where students come for a semester or two, find a school that is more affordable and caters to their needs and they transfer. A reliable source reports that the University of Hartford’s four-year retention rate is around 46 percent. That’s pitiful and one of the lowest in the state of Connecticut.

Hey Hartford, wonder why student decide to leave after a semester here? Well, look no further than the decisions you make that better the overall visual appeal of the university, but fundamentally don’t make any damn sense.

Gengras is absolutely flooded with students throughout the morning and afternoon on a daily basis and if you’re on the academic side of campus and need to stop and eat quickly, Gengras is your place to go. Now Gengras is just the place to go to burn through Dining Dollars faster than Commons goes through the student body. Nasty, but true.

So, students who don’t feel like spending their Dining Dollars will have to trek across campus to Commons to grab food in the afternoon and wait in the long food lines that are already incredibly long to begin with.

Nice job, Hartford. This school should write a book called “How to lose students in 60 days,” it’d be a best seller since it comes from a decades worth of experience.