University President Dan Mote said he thinks students with meal plans should have more options than currently offered but said he won’t interfere with Dining Services’ operations.

The comment comes two weeks after his appearance on a metro-area television show, NewsTalk, on NewsChannel 8, where he said he thinks students should not have to purchase meal plans if they don’t want one.

“Dining Services is a few rungs down from the president’s office,” Mote said Monday. “It’s not appropriate for me to run Dining Services.”

On-campus students who don’t live in kitchen-equipped apartments are required to purchase a meal plan. Students can choose from three meal-plan sizes, which range in cost from $1,467 to $1,667 per semester. Mote said Dining Services should offer more options for students.

“I like the idea of personally having more choices,” he said.

Meal plan options have not changed in the past 17 years. In 1987, meal plans included a certain number of meals per week, said Dining Services Associate Director Joe Mullineaux.

Residence Halls Association President Hannah Putman doubted Mote’s understanding of Dining Services after she spoke with him last week regarding his comment on NewsTalk.

“He probably didn’t know a lot about the meal plan and probably still doesn’t,” she said at a RHA General Assembly meeting last night. “But he’s learning.”

On the Nov. 23 segment of NewsTalk, mechanical engineering junior Reginald Renwick called in and told Mote he wants to experience on-campus living but dislikes being forced to buy a meal plan. He asked Mote why students are required to buy a meal plan when they don’t need one. Mote told Renwick to come to his office to figure out why it is a requirement.

Mote said he doesn’t know the rules for meal plans and said he hasn’t met with Renwick personally, but he assumes Renwick contacted someone else in his office to sort things out.

Renwick said he was directed to talk to Pat Mielke, assistant vice president for student affairs, when he contacted Mote’s office last week.

“They said no for everything,” Renwick said yesterday. “It’s a little disappointing. I thought when Mote said it he would correct it and make it right. It instilled false hope, and I do believe if you’re the president, things would get done what you want to see get done.”

But Mote said he’d leave it up to Dining Services Director Pat Higgins to determine how to operate the department.

“I don’t really make up these rules and so forth,” Mote said. “I really delegate this responsibility to Dining Services.”

However, Mote said Dining Services should consider making changes.

“Dining Services is not a rigid operation,” he said. “It’s changed quite a lot. … It’s a reasonable discussion to have with Dining Services. … I’m confident they’ll be receptive to these discussions.”

Mielke and Higgins said last week it is necessary for students living in traditional dorms to buy meal plans because there could be health and safety hazards if students cooked without the proper facilities.

Mullineaux also said he agrees with Mote and said officials have talked about new options.

RHA and Dining Services will conduct a study next semester allowing 3,000 second-year students to go without focus dates. They also talked about creating meal plans for the Stamp Student Union food court and for students living in on-campus apartments.