Why is it some restaurants in the area offer discounts for Shawnee State University students, but fail to give discounts to our veterans? This does not seem fair. The margin is in fact quite wide in favor of students.

To get some clear answers on this issue, the coordinator of Veteran and Military Student Services at Shawnee State, Eric Ramaekers, weighed in on the topic, “I can tell you that during Veteran and Memorial week, the community tends to get a little more veteran. Maybe it would be the campus not getting the word out, or the community maybe over time has gotten a little worn out on veterans and the drive to give veterans special discounts has dissipated over time, but I’m really not sure”.

Many different restaurants fall into this category, including Kentucky Fried Chicken, China City, and Sakura Japanese Steakhouse. The manager of each business explains of their respective reasons why.

The manager of KFC had just recently taken over within the past three weeks and was not aware of either discount being “set in stone”. She said neither is written in policy, but she would never turn down a free drink to a veteran with a meal purchase.

China City’s manager said they have been giving student discounts for a long time; they never have had a veteran’s discount. She said they have a much greater number of students who come in than they do veterans, which also might come into effect when judging reasons behind this.

The manager of Sakura’s Japanese Steakhouse did not have anything to say in regard to the reasoning behind it. She said they have always offered Shawnee State discounts.

After speaking to several different restaurant managers, the issue seems like a lack of knowledge and awareness. Veterans not making it clear that they have served as well as restaurants failing to make the public aware of such discounts could be contributing factors to the gap between student and veteran discounts. Oddly enough, nobody could seem to zero in on an exact answer about the issue at hand, including the managers themselves.