In an effort to address concerns over the current meal plans offered to on-campus residents, Student Government Association President Shaun Theriot-Smith signed the Student Focused Dining Act that would offer students more options and flexibility.
“SGA and the Food Services Advisory Committee advocates for the students in food services policy development,” Theriot-Smith said. “This is a great example of how students can positively affect issues that affect them on a daily basis.”
Economics junior and chair of the Food Services Advisory Committee Shane Smith proposed the bill.
It is comprised of four specific requests, some of which include additional options that are smaller and cost less. Smith said the Cougar 160 meal plan should be discounted to “reflect a steeper bulk-purchase discount that is closer in price per meal to non-mandated meal plans.”
Students like pre-communication sciences and disorders freshman Christian Guerrero are upset with the current meal plans that are offered.
The Cougar Choice 160 meal plan is the cheapest option available to freshman and sophomore students who live in Moody Towers, the Quadrangle, Cougar Villages 1 and 2 and Cougar Place. The students living in these dorms are required to purchase a meal plan.
He said he has more swipes than he knows what to do with thanks to his Cougar Choice 160 meal plan.
“I believe that it is an overpriced meal plan,” Guerrero said. “The 160 swipes is kind of impossible to use in one semester.”
These issues prompted the inclusion of a third request in the bill that asked the FSAC community, along with other University personnel and students, to review the “possibility of making substantial changes to the UH dining model.”
Two suggestions are a “meal equivalency or exchange program” through which students could use dining hall swipes in place of Cougar Cash and abolishing separate meal plans for mandated and non-mandated students “for the purposes of establishing a consistent price for the same food at the same dining halls.”
The Cougar 160 meal plan costs about $1,800 a semester and equates to about $8 per swipe. Compare this to the approximate $6 per swipe for the cheaper $960 Block 120 plan, which is only available to students who are not obligated to purchase a meal plan.
“(For) most of the friends that I have, there’s weeks left (until the end of the semester) and they still have over 100 swipes, so that’s about $800 that they paid for nothing,” Guerrero said.
The bill also asks for a policy revision that would allow any unused meals purchased through meal plans to be donated at the end of the semester and redistributed to “UH students having financial difficulty providing food for themselves” as determined by a neutral University entity.
Other potential suggestions include rolling over unused meal plan swipes every semester.
“This bill has more sponsors than any SGA legislation not only this year, but the last two years,” SGA Vice President Tanzeem Chowdhury said.
In response to the bill, UH Dining services said it is open to suggestions and that the act “opens up the opportunity for further discussions regarding (the) current dining program.”
“We solicit feedback annually and daily from our customers and also partner with the Food Service Advisory Committee to ensure we are consistently hearing and listening to our consumers,” Emily Fahner, marketing manager for UH Dining Services said. “We understand needs change and are always open to new ideas, suggestions and comments to improve our dining program.”
Who would put a system like that in place to begin with? The big push to get students to live on campus and then they get screwed. I would like to know the reason why students are charged more per swipe on the 160 required plan? Sounds unethical. What do you have to say Emily?
You aren’t supposed to cook in your dorm room (top reason being life-safety). The 160 meal plan is enough to have 1-2 (160/16/7 = 1.4) meals per day for the 16-week semester. One meal, maybe two meals a day is too much?
Realistically, people don’t frequent the dining hall every day for the entire semester. People go home on some weekends, or at the very least on school breaks, or get food off campus. Not to mention the cougar cash included in the plan to buy food from other venues on campus. I’ve yet to see someone actually run out of (or even come close to running out of) swipes.
When I had a meal plan at the dining halls every semester I would have 70-90 meal plans left at the end of the semester every semester. You know having pop tarts or cereal for breakfast if I was even up for breakfast and then you will eat out or go to like chic-fi-la for lunch or maybe get a microwavable dinner and it starts stacking up. Having options to do with the meals is a great move. I always hated the fact I would be losing money.