college student anxiety disorders
Legal to discriminate against online based college??

Hi everyone,
I have a question regarding a season pass at a local ski hill. They offer a “college pass” for all 12credit+ full time students for a discounted price, however, they say “online based colleges and universities do not qualify”.

I’m afraid that this is not discrimination, it is simply a problem of limited knowledge. One of the key issues at stake here is the fact of proof. Ski resorts need to make a profit, and if they just agree that everyone who walks up to the counter gets a discount, their profit may be slim to none. Online programs may make it difficult to prove whether or not you are attending them… that needn’t be the case though.

You likely have no ID, and if this is the case, you may need to take that up with your school, not with the ski resort. A fully accredited school should be able to provide ID cards so their students can get discounts.

I would ask to talk to the Ski resort manager. BE POLITE, and explain that you’re doing a lot of hard work, and spending a lot of hard earned money on your college education, just like the next guy. Tell them you realize a ski resort needs to make a profit, and can’t just admit anyone who walks up and claims to be a student, but because your time an money are being spent on college, you really can’t ski there without a discount. Tell them you want to ski there, buy a pass, spend money at the ski lodge bring your friends, etc, and you want to know what you would have to have in order to prove that you are a “real” college student. Likely, he’ll mention an ID, and maybe even specific things he would need to see on the ID, picture, student number, name of institution, some way to confirm with them that you still attend there, etc.

Once you know what you’d need, talk to your school. Tell them you’re studying hard, spending your time and money on them, and while you are glad that you can get a degree, you would like to get access to all the other student benefits students at traditional schools get. Then tell them why you cannot get a discount skiing, watching movies, etc. A good online institute will realize the potential here. Not only would an ID card help them advertize to students, it would also let them get some notoriety in the “real world” with actual people. When people start seeing real online college students, they’ll begin to take notice.

Also, an ID card might help to distinguish “real” accredited online schools from institutes that just give you degrees for sitting around. Anything that can help real onlne colleges gain legitimacy over the “earn a degree for farting on your computer seat and throwing money at us” organizations will be in their best interest.

This is cutting edge stuff. If you can get this going on, you will be doing a big part to legitimize the online degree programs, and separating the real schools from the money pits. Good luck to you.