As the dollar declines, even pizza seems pricey

By Ashley Boyd

ROME, Oct 3 - A mixture of 50-, 20- and 10-euro bills slide out of a BNL cash machine to total 200 euros. The cash will be spent on pizza, pasta, café lattes and alcohol. Visiting students take note: 200 euros comes to a whopping 280 dollars.

According to admissions officials at John Cabot University, on average, 450 students attend JCU each
semester from the United States. Each semester students face the regular culture clashes, jet lags and, this year, currency exchange shock.

How are students preparing to survive in Rome on such a weak dollar?

Megan Ballock, a senior attending JCU for a semester, is an international marketing major. A student from St. Mary’s College of California, Ballock is one student hit by the falling dollar. “I budgeted with the exchange rate," she said. "It was before I came to Rome, but when it raised I had to reassess how I spent my money.”

The exchange rate between the euro and dollar has gone from bad to worse with the dollar hitting all-time lows at the end of September, only to rebound slightly. Currently, one dollar is equivalent to roughly 70 euro cents. Where it will go next is anybody's guess.

Students attending JCU from the states are caught in this ongoing battle between the fluctuating dollar. Conscious or not, a game of currency hedging is occurring: should a student give in to the uncertainty and take out a large sum of money today, or wait out a decrease?

Professor Mary Merva, acting dean of academic affairs at JCU with a professor of economics, believes the depreciating dollar has the ability to create a lot of uncertainty for students. “It passes some comfort zone, and because of this uncertainty, people may not want to be holding dollars if they are unsure of its value.”

Varying exchange rates are inevitable; students from the states must adapt and think in euros. “I feel like I’m loosing too much money,” said Lindsay Masterson, a visiting JCU student from Hamilton, New Jersey.  “However, once I looked at my credit card statement, I cut back on spending.”

As the dollar ping-pongs up and down, all American visitors to Rome must confront some difficult math: although they hold 200 euros in their wallet to buy food or wine, it's costing them considerably more in dollars.