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Why? Is the cruelty actually the point this time? Because I see absolutely no gain here.
Palatable meals (produced at scale at a stable location) are not expensive, especially not when compared to education. Barracks bunk beds might benefit unit cohesion, instill obedience/submission and be easier to supervise/police, but that's far less necessary for the next generation of academics, and the trade-off in privacy and independence is absolutely not worth the price difference.
I'd go the other way. Kill mandatory "all-you-can-eat" meal plans (also makes the "freshman twenty" less of a thing) and mandatory on-campus dorm life. Have private businesses operate the dorms and cafeterias (plural, they need to compete) and let students live off-campus the moment they want.
And if you want to safe money, start cutting at the admin building.
This is how we generally do things in Germany, to a large degree.
Okay, almost. The "Studentenwerk" (a government-sponsored citywide institution) typically runs a canteen on campus and also provides low-end housing significantly below market value (typically off-campus, though), but they are legally distinct from the university, and students are not required to interact with them in any way (besides paying a minimal fee, perhaps). Plenty of students rent private rooms or flats and prefer private food vendors.
I believe it works the same way in most of Northern Europe. Multiple canteens operated by companies providing subsidized meals for students and below market rate rental housing owned by various non-profit foundations and student unions, all with loose association with the universities (ie. you have to be a student in one of them to live in the housing / receive subsidization but the universities have no control over any of that).
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Because college has turned into a four year vacation to get a certificate of completion at taxpayer expense, not an institute of higher learning. The goal here is to drive out people who just want taxpayer backed loans to be taken care of while doing nothing productive.
Privates in the army don’t live in conditions that are that bad anyways- I’ll flip the question on you, why do college kids need the one star resorts they live in?
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