How do you make the current dining plans look brilliant? By creating a plan even more mediocre and, worse, deceptively so. Dining Services has announced a trial run of a new A La Board meal plan intended to offer students flexibility in their dining options. The plan, which has been in the works for more than eight years, allows students to purchase points that can be used anywhere on the campus – from the diners to the food court. If this sounds good to you, think again. Dining Services tacks on a severe markup to purchases made anywhere outside the diner.
The A La Board meal plan introduces a five-level system, with the lowest level costing $1,545 and the highest costing $2,045. Level Two has the most similar cost as the currently most popular “Campus Plan,” at $1,645 a semester. Under the Level Two plan, if students wished to purchase food outside the diners, at the Stamp Student Union food court for example, they would be subject to a 398 percent markup. That is, with a cost of $1,645, you are only able to purchase $415 worth of food at the court. Even under the best-case scenario financially, which involves eating every single meal at the Diner, you would be able to buy $1,221 worth of food, still $46 less than the current Campus Plan provides. These rates are simply absurd, even considering the fact these prices include any facilities fees, seeing you can shop anywhere on the campus using Terrapin Express without any markup at all.
The worst part of this plan is a seemingly intentional will to confuse by making a plan as mathematically complicated as possible. Instead of a meal point being worth a dollar, A La Board introduces an entirely new system of points. Under Level Two, you receive 415 points for your $1,645 payment. For each dollar you spend, it costs you 0.34 points at the diners, 0.5 points at the cafes, 0.7 points at the convenience stores, and 1 point at the food court. What is the point of the points? They are arbitrary, undefined, meaningless units of measure. Perhaps Dining Services thinks it’s possible to pull the wool over the eyes of students who simply don’t wish to go through a lengthy calculation process and cost benefit scenario analysis when purchasing plans.
Director of Dining Services Pat Higgins says A La Board “will give students another option.” But no matter where they spend their money, they lose. Implementation of the plan in the fall semester is possible. We strongly encourage all students and student leaders to protest this outrageously priced and hopelessly confusing plan. If this is the best Dining Services can do in eight years, it may take a generation before we can expect to see a reasonable alternative to the current plans.
