"Every dollar spent on luxury food service is a dollar not spend on “other things”.
That would be true if all the money to operate the school came out of the same bucket. It doesn’t. If they cut back cafeteria costs and save money, that money doesn’t go to the library.
You could have cheaper food and charge students less, but the fact that no competitors are using that strategy suggests that it fails in the marketplace. People wouldn’t choose Connecticut over Trinity if the board plan were half the cost…we’re talking about $3000 a year out of $65k. Since the savings are trivial, it’s more effective to compete on quality.