Beginning this week, declining balance can be used to pay for all food and drinks that are sold at the Corner Store.
“This change is part of continuing to make sure that we are interpreting the New York State tax laws correctly,” Director of Dining Services Cam Schauf said. “A big part of following the law is interpretation. We re-evaluated them and determined that all edible items should be allowed to be declined.”
This has been discussed for a while, and student complaints were taken into consideration when making the change. Before this change, certain drinks and candy were not allowed to be declined.
“Nowhere in the law does it specifically address a dining plan,” Schauf said. “The overall meal plans are tax exempt because they are part of student dining plans on campus and no cash exchanges hands. Declining is part of the overall meal plan.”
Some students are concerned about the fact that there were non-edible items that were previously allowed to be declined.
“We will continue to accept declining balance for non-edible items , as well,” Schauf said. “The only abrupt change was to expand. We don’t want to make a big change in April.”
Over the summer, Schauf and other members of Dining Services will decide what will be available on declining for the next school year. Currently, the change only affects the Corner Store.
“We do not directly control the Common Market, so no change was made there,” Schauf said. “This is something we’ll look at over the summer. At the C3 convenience mart, everything was already able to be declined.”
Students are very excited about this change and feel that it makes the most sense for their dining needs.
“It’s fantastic,” senior Jeff Bentley said. “It makes more sense because now you are able to decline things that you were already able to decline in the Pit, like bottled water.”
Employees of the Corner Store are pleased at this excitement on the part of their customers.”Since the change went into effect Monday morning, students have been thrilled,” Corner Store Manager Bill Kent said. “It is very good that we are listening to the requests of the students and making sure that they are continually satisfied.”
Paret can be reached at eparet@campustimes.org.
