With the start of the third week of classes, University of Maryland students have had some time to get accustomed to the campus’s new dining plan — an all-you-can-eat, Anytime Dining system implemented at the beginning of this academic year — and some students said the absence of a take-out option is an issue.
Ralinkae Kane-Jackson, a sophomore electrical engineering major, said take-out was a convenient option for many students, especially early-morning risers who wanted to grab something and go.
“I feel like I had more choice if I didn’t want to sit in the diner,” she said.
Because junior Megan Chui lives in an apartment and doesn’t have a meal plan, she is not able to go into the dining halls and grab a small meal between classes, she said.
“My roommate had an experience where she just wanted to bring a banana out to eat later, but they had security guards blocking the exit and saying, ‘You have to eat that right now,'” Chui, a public health science major, said. “I think it’s kind of restraining in a way, because we don’t have the kind of freedom that we did before the dining plan changed.”
Peter Sorensen, a freshman business major, said the lack of take-out is “a little bit of an issue” for people who only have a few minutes to eat, and offering a carry-out option would be “much more convenient.”
For Kane-Jackson, taking away late-night food options – particularly the wings – was another major blow. As much as she really likes the renovated diners and the upgraded appliances, there could’ve been better communication to see what the students wanted, she said.
Students also had mixed feelings on the biometric hand scanners used to enter and exit the dining halls. Kane-Jackson said she has seen shorter lines in the dining halls, but she does not see the use of biometric hand scanners.
“If we have the IDs,” she said, “why not just use them because you issue them anyways, and you have to use them to get into the dorms?”
Regardless, Sorensen said he is “pretty satisfied with the overall dining plan” and thinks the hand-swiping system is a good idea.
“It gets the lines moving quicker, and it also alleviates the stress of how much [money] is on your card,” Sorensen said. “It just makes everything easier.”
Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple said he has received a lot of positive feedback about the new dining plan so far.
“People like the fact that they don’t have to worry about how much they are eating,” Hipple said. “They like the fact that they can select any of the different options and select more than one meal.”
He added that students seem to be receptive toward the dining halls’ new atmosphere, and that they should stay tuned as even more options become available moving forward.
“…Keep your eyes open, [as] we will be adjusting and adding things on as we move forward through the semester,” Hipple said.
