Put Your Money Where Your Meal Plan Is (Updated)

For UNK students that purchased a meal plan this year, two choices were available: 21 meals per week or 15 meals per week. Each plan includes $80 in points that are also used to purchase food. Both plans have a price tag of over $1,800 a semester. If students were able to eat every breakfast, lunch and dinner that they are paying for, the price would seem like a great deal. In fact, it equals out to be $5 per feeding for a 21 meal plan. If only it were that simple.

Each meal has an assigned time period that it has to be used during or else it expires. A 21 meal plan allows for each meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner) for every day of the week. Unfortunately, scarfing down each meal before it expires is not possible for some students. College life is typically pretty busy. Not everybody is available for every meal of every day and that means wasted money. If a student is able to only get 2 meals in during the weekdays and one on the weekend, they are wasting around $800 a semester. That’s $800 that could go toward books, gas or loan payments. It’s a shame that students are wasting so much money because of their hectic lives. Instead of losing all of the unused meals, why not give partial credit for them toward the next semester’s meal plan? That would give students even more incentive to continue to buy meal plans.

But why is it so hard for students to consume their required number of chow times? Lack of flexibility. The hours that meals are allowed to be used are restrictive and don’t account for students that have unconventional meal times. For example, lunch is offered on weekdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. If students get hungry during those seven “lunch” hours they’re just out of luck if they want to use their plan more than once. Somebody who eats an early lunch and dinner are left to find food elsewhere because only one meal can be used during those hours. Then there’s the weekend. One measly hour is designated for dinner. So don’t get hungry before 5 p.m. or after 6 p.m. because there’s no food for you.

UNK should look to other universities and construct a new plan that offers convenience and value. The University of San Diego is a great example. USD offers multiple plans in a block structure that allows students to purchase a set amount of meals for the semester and then use them when it’s most convenient. North Georgia College and State University has a meal plan that gives students unlimited access to the dining hall. Either of these programs would offer better meal options than UNK.

If UNK is going to stay with the overpriced, inconvenient meal plans, students should at least be given the opportunity to figure out what works best for them. Take Tennesse Tech University. There, students are allowed to choose a meal plan and change after two weeks if they feel another plan might fit their needs better.

With a five percent increase scheduled to occur next year in room and board rates, UNK needs to greatly redesign how its students get their grub, with an emphasis on convenience and value. As of now, students are not getting the best bagel for their buck.

Put Your Money Where Your Meal Plan Is

It’s no wonder new UNK students worry about the “freshman 15.” With as many times as students are forced to eat on their meal plans each week, gaining 15 pounds can be easy. And if they don’t gain, they’ll probably lose–lose money that is.

For UNK students that purchased a meal plan this year, two choices were available: 21 meals per week or 15 meals per week. Each plan includes $80 in points that are also used to purchase food. Each plan has a price tag of over $1800 a semester. If students were able to eat every breakfast, lunch and dinner that they are paying for, the price would seem like a great deal. In fact, it equals out to be $5 per feeding for a 21 meal plan. Unfortunately, scarfing down each meal before it expires is not possible for some students. If a student is able to only get 2 meals in during the weekdays and one of the weekend, they are wasting around $800 a semester. That’s $800 that could go toward books, gas or loan payments.

But why is is so hard for students to consume their required number of chow times? Lack of flexibility. The hours of transferability for meal plans are outrageous. For example, lunch is offered Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that most people don’t continue to eat lunch until 5 o’clock in the evening. If students get hungry during those six “lunch” hours they’re just out of luck if they want to use their plan. Then there’s the weekend. One measly hour is designated for dinner. So don’t hungry before 5 p.m. or after 6 p.m. because there’s no food for you.

If UNK removed the meals per week program, students wouldn’t have to strain every single meal of every single day. With class, work, homework, extracurricular activities and friends entered into the equation, meals should not have to be a person’s number one priority.

For a student that lives in the apartment-style housing on campus the meal plans are likely to seem even more redundant. Those living in a four bedroom apartment in the Antelope/Nester complex are paying up to $860 more a year than other buildings on campus, in part because of the almost fully-equipped kitchen in each room. They do not have stoves but there are multiple stoves per building and those with electric skillets, convection ovens, and hot plates find that they are able to cook their own meals daily in their own room. Why equip these students with their own kitchens if they are still required to eat as many meals on campus as students without kitchens?

UNK should look to other universities and construct a new plan that offers convenience and value. The University of San Diego is a great example. USD offers multiple plans in a block structure that allows students to purchase a set amount of meals for the semester and then use them when it’s most convenient. North Georgia College and State University has a meal plan that gives students unlimited access to the dining hall. Either of these programs would offer better meal options than UNK.

If UNK is going to stay with the overpriced, inconvenient meal plans, students should at least be given the opportunity to figure out what works best for them. Take Tennesse Tech University. There, students are allowed to choose a meal plan and change after two weeks if they feel another plan might fit their needs better.

With a five percent increase scheduled to occur next year in room and board rates, UNK needs to greatly redesign how its students get their grub, with an emphasis on convenience and value. As of now, students are not getting the best bagel for their buck.

Crunching Numbers

Imagine spending five dollars on a meal. Now imagine taking that meal and throwing it straight into the trash can. That’s basically what I’m doing about ten times a week on campus. I’d like to go one day without feeling guilty when a mealtime passes and I haven’t used my allotted meal.

I have a 21 meal per week plan which costs me $1783, a semester. That boils down to $106 a week and about $5 a meal. Not such a bad price–if I didn’t miss about half of the meals that I’m paying for. College students are busy people, myself included. I am taking 14 credit hours and work about 25 hours a week. Add to that about 15 hours of homework and you got yourself a full schedule, and I’m not even the busiest person out there.

With the amount of time I spend dedicated to school and work there is not always a possibility for me to run off to use my meal before it expires. Three out of five weekdays I start work at 7 a.m. That eliminates 3 meals a week for breakfast. On two days I work through lunch. There goes two more meals. I’m lucky if I am able to get one meal during the weekend. I’m sorry but I’m not going to plan my weekend activities around my campus meal plan. The inconvenience of using my meals is just inconceivable.

Overall, I average about 11 meals a week that I’m able to use. That means that I’m losing out on ten of my meals a week, or about $50. That adds up to $800 a semester and $6,400 if I were to stay at that rate for my four years here. I don’t even want to know how long that will take me to pay off in future loan payments.

Local/University Editorial Ideas

1) Academic cheating: I wrote one post about this already but I could go more in-depth with it and apply it more to UNK. I don’t know who I could talk to or who would be able to talk to me about the specifics of cheating at UNK. It would be interesting to know about anyone that has been kicked out for cheating. I really think this is a big problem that a lot of people really just ignore, especially teachers.

2)UNK  Meal plans: I still live on campus and my biggest complaint is the amount of money I waste on food. I pay for 21 meals a week that are literally impossible for me to take full advantage of. Chartwells has obviously spent a lot of money on updates to their appearance and food and while that makes the experience of getting food a bit better, the fact that I’m wasting my money during every meal that I don’t get at the school is a much bigger concern to me.