Dining Dollars Lawsuit?

The news today from my old hometown of Tuscaloosa is a lawsuit brought by a couple of former students against the University for requiring students to buy $300 per semester in food.  Their complaint is that the university, which allows students to use their "dining dollars" at couple of local restaurants as well as at the university dining halls, violates the state constitution's prohibition of state agencies from  “being interested in any private or corporate enterprise.”  Good luck to them  – the complaint sounds like a real stretch to me, a real stretch.  One thing's for sure, something to talk about in class at the University of Alabama law school.