Spring Break
Meal plans offer limited flexibility for a price
Joy Pavelski
Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: News
Hillsdale College students have more meal-plan options this semester than ever, but students and meal-service provider Saga, Inc. still don't know how much they like the difference.
The college now offers block meal plans of 100, 150 or 200 meals per semester besides their usual 10, 15 or 19 meals per week plans. Only off-campus students and Suites residents may buy the 10-meal or 100-block plans. Most block plans include Charger Change, which is money credited to ID cards to spend at Jitters, AJ's Cafe or Knorr Family Dining Hall.
But flexibility comes with a price. Two of the three block plans cost nearly one and a half times per meal the amount a student will spend on a non-block plan.
"I don't think the block plans make economic sense," senior Nathanael Wynia said. "At the end of the semester, you're paying more for the block plan by a lot."
Wynia lives in The Suites, where students can choose the 10-meal plan. He said most Suites residents he knows elected to keep the 10-meal plan.
Students have complained for years about food quality and that attendance requires buying a meal plan, while Saga struggles to mass-serve 1,406 students, while not knowing how many will attend any given meal. Last semester, Vice President of Student Affairs Diane Philipp asked Student Federation to research better options.
"It's hard because at a small school there's not all this competition between food providers," senior and Federation Treasurer Christine Cheatum said.
After researching meal plans at eight similar colleges, the Federation's meal committee reported that food service was students' "most common complaint," and that students most wanted dining flexibility. The Federation then proposed student-generated adjustments to Philipp, Vice President of Administration Ken Cole and Saga General Manager Kevin Kirwan. They suggested meal plans of seven, 12 and 16 meals per week which cost the same as the regular 10-, 15- and 19-meal plans. Each would have included $15 per week in Charger Change that students could spend at any campus food service for flex meals or mid-afternoon lattes. Students would pay $5 either in cash or Charger Change for any additional meals, including those for personal guests.
Saga counter-proposed with meal plans of only block meals and no set number of meals provided per week. The two compromised into this semester's experiment, which includes the block plans but with relatively little attached Charger Change and at much higher prices. More changes will likely follow, Cheatum and Philipp said.
"Student Federation is committed to following this to the end until we get a solution," Cheatum said.
Saga employees did not return repeated phone calls and office visits requesting comment.
Other meal plan changes mean that students missing a meal for class or work may no longer obtain snack-bar passes, but may procure box lunches, and that students may no longer give their ID number for dining-room admittance but must always swipe their ID card. This last change, planners hope, will keep meals tied to the person who bought them and not that person's ID number.
The college now offers block meal plans of 100, 150 or 200 meals per semester besides their usual 10, 15 or 19 meals per week plans. Only off-campus students and Suites residents may buy the 10-meal or 100-block plans. Most block plans include Charger Change, which is money credited to ID cards to spend at Jitters, AJ's Cafe or Knorr Family Dining Hall.
But flexibility comes with a price. Two of the three block plans cost nearly one and a half times per meal the amount a student will spend on a non-block plan.
"I don't think the block plans make economic sense," senior Nathanael Wynia said. "At the end of the semester, you're paying more for the block plan by a lot."
Wynia lives in The Suites, where students can choose the 10-meal plan. He said most Suites residents he knows elected to keep the 10-meal plan.
Students have complained for years about food quality and that attendance requires buying a meal plan, while Saga struggles to mass-serve 1,406 students, while not knowing how many will attend any given meal. Last semester, Vice President of Student Affairs Diane Philipp asked Student Federation to research better options.
"It's hard because at a small school there's not all this competition between food providers," senior and Federation Treasurer Christine Cheatum said.
After researching meal plans at eight similar colleges, the Federation's meal committee reported that food service was students' "most common complaint," and that students most wanted dining flexibility. The Federation then proposed student-generated adjustments to Philipp, Vice President of Administration Ken Cole and Saga General Manager Kevin Kirwan. They suggested meal plans of seven, 12 and 16 meals per week which cost the same as the regular 10-, 15- and 19-meal plans. Each would have included $15 per week in Charger Change that students could spend at any campus food service for flex meals or mid-afternoon lattes. Students would pay $5 either in cash or Charger Change for any additional meals, including those for personal guests.
Saga counter-proposed with meal plans of only block meals and no set number of meals provided per week. The two compromised into this semester's experiment, which includes the block plans but with relatively little attached Charger Change and at much higher prices. More changes will likely follow, Cheatum and Philipp said.
"Student Federation is committed to following this to the end until we get a solution," Cheatum said.
Saga employees did not return repeated phone calls and office visits requesting comment.
Other meal plan changes mean that students missing a meal for class or work may no longer obtain snack-bar passes, but may procure box lunches, and that students may no longer give their ID number for dining-room admittance but must always swipe their ID card. This last change, planners hope, will keep meals tied to the person who bought them and not that person's ID number.
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