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PAST ISSUES

 "Unlimited" meal plans; are they for real?

by Tom Cooper
Exchange Staff

     It is nine o' clock. You are broke, out of pub points because it is late in the semester, and the cafeteria is closed. What are you supposed to do?

     Students living in the freshman dorms, or sophomore dorms, don't have much choice when it comes to eating. Freshman are required to have unlimited meal plans. They are able to choose from having 150 pub points, or no pub points. Having the extra will cost $1,965 a semester, while having no pub points will cost $1,890 a semester.

     Anyone that has had to get this unlimited meal plan knows that when going to the cafe, it is "all you can eat". Students are able to go up and get as many servings of sloppy joe sandwiches as their heart desires. However, the take out boxes are only given away to faculty who have to go teach a class, or a student who has some sort of proof that they need to be at work-study or somewhere else.

     Students living in sophomore housing have slightly more choice. They can choose from either the two unlimited meal plan options, or they can get 15 meals per week, which comes in at $1,790 dollars a semester, one hundred dollars less than the unlimited meal plan. They can also choose to have 150 block points along with 100 pub points which will cost 1,225 a semester.

     Students living in junior housing or senior housing, are not required to have a meal plan, because they have kitchens of their own at their respected residencies. However, there is the problem this year of overcrowding, and some juniors are stuck living in sophomore housing and are therefore forced to pay for the entire meal plan.

     "I should be living in the towers or trailers this year," said Junior Drew Thrash. "But I kind of got stuck living in Edgewood, and they don't even allow George Foreman grills".

     Senior Experience Director Chris Johnson says that the school is working on getting upperclassmen students who are living in sophomore dorms new housing by next semester. "Students leave for multiple reasons every semester, and when we get word that they are leaving, we will do our best to move the students to more suitable housing." This would then enable the upperclassmen to change their meal plans if they so desired.

     Kim Knox, the Director of Food Service, sees some problems to kids being able to use the take out boxes. "We understand that students often like to eat after 7pm and this is why many of the meal plans have dining points as a component of the plan and that the pub is open until 11pm. However, If we allowed everyone to take as much as they wanted out of the cafeteria than there would be very few upperclassman that would purchase a meal plan - why purchase it if your friends can just steal all the food from the cafe for you?"

     Knox also believes that it could turn out to be somewhat of a health concern. "There are many students that don't know or care about properly refrigerating or reheating food. We would potentially have a lot of sick students with food poisoning."

     The answer to this problem is simple. We understand the overcrowding in the dorms. We even understand the need to require an unlimited meal plan for students in freshman and sophomore housing because they don't have kitchens. However, why can't we be trusted to not steal food from the cafeteria? Odds are that upperclassmen are probably at home cooking up their own meal anyways. If the meal plan is unlimited, and the cafe is all you can eat, then make it that way.