According to an old wives' tale, having a dream of your teeth falling out means you are worried about your sexual potency (or lack thereof). According to me, Nicole-the-university-kid, dreams about your teeth falling out, while being a Capilano student, means you are probably worried about the fact that you are too poor to go to the dentist.
This happened to me last night, after spending a little bit of time preparing a survey for fellow students to take about the ‘could-be-possible-maybe-one-day’ optional dental plan that the CSU is eventually going to propose to the students.
My dream was brutally realistic. In it, my teeth turned this haggard yellow and brown rotten colour, and then, one by one, they shattered into millions of glass-like shards. My mouth was bleeding. Now to be honest, I think it wasn’t just the survey that gave me this dream. The fact that my wisdom teeth have been throbbing like an effer may have had something to do it.
I, like about 40% of the people I surveyed, do not have dental coverage. To get my wisdom teeth out would cost approximately the same amount as one semester at Capilano (for a student taking five science courses that required labs). Exciting and bloody expensive options, right? Education now, teeth later... or teeth now, education next year?
That is a pretty hefty decision, and as Michael Dommick wrote on his survey, “I think it is wrong that our school doesn’t already have dental and medical”. Last week’s news article about the ‘possible optional extended dental plan’ talked about the potential prices depending on what insurance companies the CSU may go through, as well as touching on the fact that Capilano is one of the few universities in BC that doesn’t already have a dental plan for students.
Let’s just remind ourselves that Capilano only became a university last year. Now, while it could be a fair argument to say the CSU hasn’t had time to look into optional dental until now, I want to ask the question: Why didn’t they start looking into it as Capilano was planning on getting accreditation?
I was given early acceptance when I applied for the Fall 2008 term. I had applied to Capilano College, and when I received my acceptance letter, I was congratulated on being one of the first students formally accepted to what would be Capilano University as of September 2008.
I received that letter in February of 2008. So the CSU has had to have known about Capilano becoming a university since then. In fact, I remember coming to pay some fees and asking where I would go to register for my dental/medical coverage. I was told there wasn’t one, and I was a little annoyed at the time.
Of the fifty people I surveyed regarding whether they would want to see an optional plan offered to students, 84% of people said yes – they would like to see that. Now, I may personally think that the other 16% of students were being selfish and not thinking about other people who may not have parents that can afford to keep paying for their adult children’s teeth. But I also have to say having such a positive response reinforced the feeling that I wasn’t going to school with a bunch of 90210 posers with daddy’s credit card. And that if 84% of a sample of students would vote yes to optional dental, the CSU should really start focusing a little harder on their ‘potential plans’.
70% of all comments left at the bottom of the survey had exclamation marks. Some examples include: “What a great idea!”, “WE REALLY NEED THIS AT CAP! THANK YOU!!”, and “YES! Please get dental!”. One of the more altruistic comments left on the survey was: “I’m covered by my parents, I’m lucky. Lots of kids can’t afford to go to school, much less the dentist.”
//Nicole Mucci
Columnist
Bio: Mucci works hard to find out what's on the mind of the student body. She surveys the heck out of unsuspecting victims, and throws in a quiz here and there for your entertainment. Look for her in the cafeteria, she’ll be the girl with the crazy red hair. And be ready to have your voice heard.
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