The dollars and sense of Campus Dining

Mike Alberti Staff Writer

At the end of the semester, Vassar students invariably begin scraping the bottom of the meal-point barrel, at both at the All-Campus Dining Center (ACDC) and The Retreat. An e-mail sent on Nov. 27 from Senior Director of Campus Dining Maureen King informed students that Campus Dining hoped to fuel students for the weeks ahead and “provide better service” by “immediately converting 100 of [students’] ACDC points to Retreat points…in addition to the ‘rollover’ of 100 ACDC points that is set to occur in January.” With these changes and their visible repercussions, students cannot help but question how their points are handled, as well as how the plan works in the first place.

In past years, all the extra ACDC points that students had at the end of the semester rolled over to Retreat points in January. However, according to King, the extra business this rollover caused at The Retreat was more than the establishment could handle. “Some students had 300 or more points converting, but The Retreat is a small facility, and was only established as a satellite to ACDC,” said King.

The increased demands have greatly taxed The Retreat since the Thanksgiving rollover. “For the last week or so, we have been overwhelmed,” said Assistant Chef at The Retreat Jesus Leyva. “It is always busy here, but it’s been a little more hectic than usual.”

He added, “Since it’s such a small kitchen, there is stress on the workers. We try to provide good service to the students. I don’t like to see kids waiting, but there is only so much food we can put out.”

“From my point of view, the rollover is a temporary solution. We are a campus of 2,400 students, and maybe the dining situation can’t accommodate that,” said Chair of the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Food Committee Marcy Levitan ’08. The Food Committee is comprised of students, members of the food management services and faculty who address the concerns of the College community regarding food service. “Students don’t want their extra points to disappear at the end of the semester, but if they all roll over at once, the facilities can’t handle it,” said Levitan. “This rollover was a Band-Aid. The bigger issue is, can our dining situation accommodate student needs?”

Vassar’s current meal plan system was implemented in 1993. Prior to the switch, students were given a certain number of all-you-can-eat meals per semester. Faced with student dissatisfaction, the College implemented the point system.

“We are a pretty environmentally conscious student body, and the all-you-can-eat system has been proven to produce a lot more waste,” said Levitan, who also cited the irregular eating schedules of students as a reason for the flexible balance system.

However, King explained that the point system “causes confusion,” because a certain number of dollars go in, and a smaller number of points come out. Vassar offers students a choice of four meal plans, and the selection of a plan is compulsory for students living in residence halls. Each yields a different ratio of dollars to points. For the largest “plus” plan, nearly three dollars are paid for every meal point, while each point on the “minimum” plan is worth nearly five dollars.

“It’s been brought to the Food Committee’s and Campus Dining’s attention that students pay more dollars than the points they get back,” Levitan commented. “I’ve been told that the difference goes towards things like building maintenance, upkeep, and making sure the employees are paid a fair living wage. I believe, however, and I think the VSA agrees, that it seems like an underhanded way of doing things. But these things do need to be paid for somehow.”

According to King, the cost of each plan has remained pretty stable over the years, but point values may change slightly in proportion to tuition costs. “Say room and board costs go up by five percent one year. If you pay five percent more, you will basically be getting five percent more points as well,” she explained. “However, the value ratio of the plans themselves isn’t reviewed from year to year.”

Simple math done using numbers from the Campus Dining Web site (campusdining.vassar.edu) shows that across the meal plan system, 20-30 percent of money paid at the beginning of the year becomes accessible meal points.

Each year, Aramark conducts a survey of the schools it caters to. According to King, Vassar students perceive price-values to be much lower than students at other schools.

Campus Dining and the Food Committee is considering another option for next year. “What’s becoming more and more popular at other colleges is to have a combination of meals and points,” King said. “Maybe we could do something like making ACDC meal-based and having The Retreat, Kiosk, and the Atrium continue to run on points.”

Expanding students’ options is something the food committee is addressing this year. “There is talk of creating a new facility, but that’s something that’s over the heads of the Food Committee,” Levitan said. “We don't have budgeting to actually make changes like that.”
“We can’t meet everyone’s needs all the time,” said King. “but we’re trying. We have a management staff of 10 and 100 employees and we’re all here to provide a high level of customer service.”

Additional reporting by Lauren Sutherland, Senior Editor