Who likes to be told when you have to eat?

You eat when you’re hungry. That’s how your stomach works. When you’re on the 10- or 14-meal plan you don’t get to eat whenever you want. There are set times for when you’re able to use your plan. I think you should be able to use your meal plan whenever you want.

Right now the plan is set up so you get a certain number of meals each week, from Sunday morning to Saturday evening, for the whole semester. Unused meals do not carry over to future weeks. You are limited to one meal per meal time, period.

If this isn’t changed, future students will be limited to these times, and not changing it will only cause dissatisfaction. I’ve talked to a number of students who are on the 10- or 14-meal plans, and they said they don’t like the specific time periods. I’ve also talked to upperclassmen who said the time periods did not exist in previous years. Now, you’re much more limited with your plan. The students said they liked it better before it was changed. When I surveyed random people and asked them what they thought about this issue, eight out of 10 people were either on the 10- or 14-meal plan.

I asked them why they chose that plan and most said they thought it had better benefits. Then I asked them what they thought about the specific time periods. Seven of the eight people said it was an inconvenience and agreed that it should be changed.

This is one of the main reasons that it should be changed – it’s a huge inconvenience. From personal experience, I’ve had many times where I’ve been really busy with studying and classes that I forgot what time it was. Then I looked at the clock and realize that I just missed the lunch period. Since I wasn’t able to get lunch, I had to get my meal in the dinner time period. Because you can’t get more than one meal in a time period, I only ate one meal that day. By the end of the week, I’d end up having extra meals left over. Since I had leftover meals I couldn’t use, I felt like I was wasting my money. I’m paying for 14 meals, and because it’s my money, I should be able to eat all 14 meals whenever I want. My eating habits should not have to revolve around specific times.

I know you have a choice of what meal plan you sign up for, and you could choose the declining balance instead. The declining balance allows you to buy food whenever you want at any time of the day. This sounds like the logical meal plan to get because you can use it when you want, and don’t have a set number of meals per week. Not everything about the declining meal plan is good, however. You usually end up paying more in the long run because you don’t get a transfer meal with the declining, and you have to pay full price for everything you buy.

A transfer meal is a specific deal restaurants on campus offer students who are on the 10- or 14-meal plan. Restaurants offer transfer meals so students aren’t restricted to only eating at the caf‚. The declining plan doesn’t have this deal, however. That means students who choose to be on the declining plan end up paying more for their meals. For example, at Blimpie’s, one of the transfer meals available is a turkey or ham sub with a bag of chips and a fountain drink. This costs $2.90 if you are on the 10- or 14-meal plan, but it would cost $4.79 if you were on the declining plan. You get a deal with the transfer meal if you choose to be on the 10- or 14-meal plan, but if you choose to be on the declining meal plan you don’t get the same deal.

I think you should be able to use all 10 or 14 meals within the week whenever you want, and not according to the meal period for all the reasons I’ve stated. It causes dissatisfaction and is an inconvenience for students who choose to be on the 10- or 14-meal plan. There is a way you can try and make this happen. You, as a student, can bring this to the attention of the Committee Dining Services. They would thoroughly consider every aspect of this issue if it were brought to their attention. If enough people show dissatisfaction for how the system is set up now, the committee may consider changing it in the future.