Thursday, November 8, 2001

Food Fees
New policy steals from students

For most students who live on campus, a customary trip to The Main for a meal includes watching the amount of money on their cards dwindle to a mere $10. But for a minority of on-campus students, the mandatory flat rate for their meal plans hardly recedes below even a third of that amount.

This doesn’t present a problem because the money that is leftover on the meal plan for those students is transferred onto their meal plans for the spring semester.

However, the money that remains on the card next semester will not be returned to the students. Instead it will go into what Director of Residential Services Roger Fisher calls the university’s “black hole,” a fund where extra money goes to be dispersed as needed.

Fisher said minimum meal plan price was increased so students will eat more meals on campus instead of going elsewhere.

It is understandable that TCU created the flat rate to make money. However, there are students on campus that either do not prefer to eat the food offered on-campus or cannot eat the food because of dietary preferences. For those students, spending $400 to $800 is nearly impossible. When the remaining balance from this semester is transferred on the same flat rate next semester, it will just be more money that they cannot spend. In essence, students end up losing money to the school just because they have different dietary preferences.

If administrators wanted to increase the amount of money students spend for food, they should work with Sodexho to improve dining services. It seems to be part of the college experience to complain about campus food. However, no one seems to be listening when TCU students have valid complaints or suggestions.

Putting the excess balance into this “black hole” is like stealing from the students and their parents. TCU is exploiting them in order to make money.

Students shouldn’t have to feel pressured to spend money on more food than they can eat, and they shouldn’t have to pay for their friends to eat either just because they have higher balances and do not want to just give the money to the university.

The money that is leftover on the meal plans should be returned and forwarded to the student. It should be used for food; not to support other parts of the university as needed.