The All-Campus Dining Plan that debuted last spring will be offered this spring to all students who have been on the meal plan for two or more semesters. This is the last phase of a three-part pilot program that Dining Services officials hope will end in an official release of the program for all interested students next fall.
Despite early criticism that the plan was difficult to understand and not widely recognized by dining services employees, the second survey administered by Dining Services this semester concluded that students appear to understand the plan better, leaving officials confident that it can be released to a larger audience, Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple said.
“It’s easy to understand the plan, but it’s harder to understand the plan’s nuances,” he said. “The results of the second questionnaire have been more positive than the first.”
Officials attribute the positive feedback in this second trial to the fact that students have had time to grasp the rules of the plan – time they didn’t have in the shorter first trial, Hipple said. In addition, a balance calculator has been added to the Dining Services website to help students budget their money.
The plan, which was originally drafted by the Residence Halls Association last year, was implemented for six weeks last spring. The pilot was extended to a larger group of participants this semester.
While the plan will still be offered only on a trial basis next spring, the only thing that will separate this third pilot of the All-Campus plan from any other dining option is a questionnaire participants will be required to fill out. This time around, the plan will be offered to any number of students who have been on a dining plan for two semesters, without the sample size restrictions officials imposed in the fall.
While some RHA leaders had hoped the plan would be released as a mainstream meal plan rather than a pilot program for next semester, Dining Services officials said they are in no rush to promote the plan.
The extra time will allow them to analyze one of the plan’s most highly regarded components – rollover. Students now on the plan with extra points leftover at the end will be able to use them next semester.
If the positive feedback continues, the plan will become an official part of Dining Services’ meal plan package for the start of the next school year, Dining Services Director Pat Higgins said.
“We’re committed to this year just being a test year again,” she said. “But the way things look right now, I don’t see a problem with continuing it for the fall.”
The plan features a new point system which allows users to eat at any location on the campus from the dining halls to the Stamp Student Union food court and was designed to give students more choices for where they could use their meal points.
“If the students like it, it’s just another option,” Higgins said. “If it makes the 100 that are on it happy, we’re doing something good.”
Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com.
