One of the many frustrations and concerns I had coming into this school, was comprehending their meal plan layout here. It was completely different from my previous school where there were only two eateries: a small dining hall and an off-brand Starbucks cafe and every resident student were given roughly $2,000 dining points; you pay for each item you get.

So coming to the services and orientations for transfer students, the staff already made a mistake of not explaining the meal plan thoroughly, leaving me to figure things out myself or with fellow students. I thought to myself, what are dining dollars? What are swipes? Can I swipe anywhere or anytime? After a semester and a half, of unused breakfast swipes and zero dining dollars, I demanded that Sodexo do something about the meal plans as they did not make sense.

The meal plan options that are now retired this year lacked proper balance, in my mind. Let’s not forget how unreasonably expensive the C-Store and the menu items during lunchtime at Bartels. When I took the second to look at how much mozzarella stick or chicken strips were, it was approximate $6 for them, which perplexed me. First it’s not enough dining dollars, and unless we get unlimited, we have to spend the dollars during lunch (unless you have a fixed number of FOD swipes). Both unlimited plans come with breakfast which prompted the question in my mind: why can’t Sodexo make it so I can choose swipe for lunch and dinner? I know that the Blue offered unlimited swipes of FOD, but what’s with a fewer dining dollars provided.

Personally, I go out of my way every semester to ensure I don’t have classes in the early morning. I wouldn’t have a reason to wake up and drag myself to breakfast, which is not even of good quality. My hope was that if we couldn’t have options with our swipes – because of the presumed idea that lunch costs money because of the high quality – at least give us more dining dollars. By the end of the fall semester, I saw that there was barely anyone in the dining hall during lunch as most of my peers told me they ran out of dining dollars.

Some people have more tendencies to go to certain eateries and others could be like me who skip breakfast and go straight to lunch. I don’t know if Sodexo head thought it was best that lunch is dining dollars as the bulk of classes take place during the 11 a.m.-2 p.m. bracket.I’m glad that Sodexo is changing the meal plans and the structure of the already-congested-around-peak-times dining area Bartels.

I’m happy that I won’t have to be concerned about not being able to get lunch or dinner because I can choose a meal plan with unlimited options such as Platinum or Gold. Plus, I’ll finally have a dorm with a full kitchen so I can save dining dollars by cooking there.

People are upset about the higher price changes, but I don’t think they should. I can’t have sympathy for them. They choose to come to this overly expensive school (instead of a state school) and sign the Housing Licensing Agreement to live on campus that requires that you carry a meal plan unless you live on Main Street or Savin. At the end of the day, the loans I’m taking out is covering all of the on-campus expenses (the room and board with the regular tuition).

I challenge people to let that seep in their minds. Now if the quality of the food changes or continues to become a problem then I will outwardly complain about to Sodexo.