New meal plans for next fall will be announced on Feb. 5, River Campus Dean of Students Mary-Beth Cooper said.
The dining fair that took place in early December gave students the chance to voice their opinions on campus dining. Meal plans were the hot topic, as roughly 35 individuals from the Student Dining Committee suggested alternatives to the current plans.
Potential plans
The Student Dining Committee spent a considerable amount of time researching the meal plans of 40 other universities in order to come up with the best proposal. The committee proposed two cheaper sets of plans which feature combination and declining balance formats.
Sophomore Lonny Mallach, the committee chair and Students? Association chief of staff, described these plans as more direct and financially beneficial.
?Over the next few weeks, we?ll be coming together with UR dining representatives to finalize these dining plans. I think that next year we should have plans that are better than what we have now,? Mallach said.
Cooper thought the outcome of the event was very positive.
?The proposed plans served as a platform to get feedback from students on the structure of the plans. I thought the students did a great job with their presentations,? Cooper said.
Discontent
Mallach has described the current plans as convoluted and unreasonable, summing up many students? feelings.
?Plans were so complicated that students didn?t understand them and would be switching plans early in the semester,? he said.
Mallach also said that simply charging meals to one?s Flex account would be cheaper than signing up for any dining plan.
Ultimately, grounds for change lie solely with the administration.
Poor attendance
The number of students who showed up at the fair was far less than the number of complaints that had been lodged against the dining plans.
Cooper said that one reason could be that the fair was staged at an inconvenient time.
?The timing was tough because it was at the end of the semester, and it was in Hillside not a very common place,? she said.
