Update on meal plan changes for Fall 2002

Elizabeth Cone
Staff Writer

Sodexho Campus Services will be offering a different mix of meal plans for Fall 2002 than the current meal plans.
The decision to change the meal plan wasn’t just thought up by Sodexho alone.
“These plans were not thought of by University Services and Sodexho sitting around a desk,” Roger Busby, general manager of Sodexho, said. “We discussed the possibilities with a good mix of students-some were freshmen, sophomores, juniors. We talked with commuters and people who live in the residence halls.” The Board of Directors was involved, along with SGA and the University Housing Office.
Why do the meal plans need to be changed?
“The meal plan options had not been changed for many years, so they were not meeting the needs of our students as they were telling us what they wanted,” Busby explained. “Most universities have three or four different meal plans. We have nine.”
Busby explained that having fewer plans will simplify things.
A resident student will be able to pick from three different plans: (1) Unlimited Plan with $150 Flex dollars, (2) 14 meals per week with $150 Flex dollars and (3) 150 Block Plan with $150 Flex dollars.
Students who live off-campus have four choices: the three above and a 25 Block Plan with no Flex dollars. Students living off-campus may purchase as many 25 Block Plans as they would like.
Bye bye, Meal Equivalency. The meal equivalency plan will not be part of the meal plan in the fall.
“There was a lot of confusion, even with the information we put out trying to explain how the meal equivalency worked,” Busby said, adding that students would go to the Pit or Chick-Fil-A thinking it was meal equivalency time, and they would go through the lines and get to the cash register, finally realizing that it wasn’t meal equivalency time.
“The meal equivalency was designed to meet the occasional students’ needs, and we understood that occasionally someone couldn’t make it to the dining hall,” Busby said. “Unfortunately, it just became too popular.”
Another thing to leave the dining hall is the “Carry Out” program. Busby explained that the meal to-go program started because of requests from three students who were unable to sit in the dining hall.
“To my understanding, we went from three people getting takeouts to 1,500 takeouts a week,” Busby said. He said it had become a huge expense for the dining hall. Though the “Carry Out” program will not be a part of the dining hall, Busby said, students with special needs will be able to get meals to go.
The meal plan changes will go into effect Fall 2002.
“We will implement the changes, see how it goes and see if it adjustments need to be made,” Busby said. “It’s going to be a learning curve when that program gets up and running.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 22 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry