Cost of meal plans increases, some options go unused
Students paid $308 more this academic year for a 19-meal room and board plan. Dezarai Brown said she sacrificed a few meals a week this semester and bought a plan that was cheaper.
"I think meal plans are extremely expensive," said the Jackson sophomore.
"With two or three extra meals a week, (the price) increased by (hundreds of dollars) for the entire semester. I can eat a protein bar instead (of the additional meals); it would be way cheaper than that."
About 5,800 on-campus students dine in Central Michigan University's four residential restaurants each day.
A meal plan is required for students living in the residence halls. Since the 2010-11 academic year, room and board costs based on a 19 meal plan, increased by $996 while on-campus undergraduate tuition has increased $49 per credit hour.
"Not only do I think (on-campus dining) is overpriced, I also don't always have time to eat in the dining halls," said McBain junior Megan Taylor, who said by the end of the week, she usually has two or three meals left.
Meal plan costs are set based on several factors, according to Interim Director of Residences and Auxiliary Services, Cal Seelye. Two factors that contributed to this year’s increase were increased food costs and minimum wage increases.
Part of the reason for an increase in meal plan was increase in prices for poultry, beef, milk and cheese prices to purchase and transport, Seelye said.
CMU works closely with Campus Dining to determine rates for meal plans. Dining fees are established and approved by the CMU Board of Trustees.
Campus dining staff are paid more this year due to a minimum wage increase, which went into effect on Jan. 1. Pay increased from $8.15 to $8.50 per hour in Michigan. Another increase is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2017. The impact the 2017 increase will have on the budget has not yet been discussed.
Any money generated from students paying for meal plans goes into accounts to improve the dining units, develop new programs or generally to benefit students in the residence halls with meal plans, Seelye said.
Price of the plan
Northville senior Josh Zawodny said he would have liked different options and improved food quality when he had a meal plan as a sophomore and freshman.
"I feel like it was just really low grade for what I was paying," he said.
All four residential meal plan options — the 10, 14, 16 and unlimited meal plans — include meal swipes to eat at residential restaurants and FLEX dollars. With the price of room and board included, the 10 meal plan costs $8,124, the 14 meal plan is $8,720, the 16 meal plan is $8,862 and the unlimited plan is $9,088 for the year.
Meal plans at other universities in Michigan are structured differently. Most are required for residential students and have three different options to choose from that are included in room and board costs.
CMU's room and board for the 19 meal plan package is priced at $9,088 and is comparable to Grand Valley State University's at $8,360, Eastern Michigan University's at $8,666, Michigan State University's at $9,524, Ferris State University's at $9,434, and Western Michigan University's at $9,238.
Inflexible hours
When students are unable to dine in a residential restaurant, they can use FLEX dollars to buy food at another on-campus location. Students have the option of buying more FLEX dollars if they run out.
The minimum FLEX that can be purchased separately from a meal plan is $25. Bought in large amounts at once, there are "discounts" when buying additional FLEX dollars. For example, students can buy $100 worth of extra FLEX dollars for $90. The most FLEX that can be purchased at a time is $400 worth of FLEX for $360.
Marquardt said the residential restaurants are designed to be sit-down restaurants. Students are not allowed to take food out of them.
“Overall prices of meal plans would likely increase in an environment where food items could be consumed in the all-you-care-to-eat restaurant and also brought out of the restaurant,” she said.
Real Food on Campus, more commonly known as RFOC, serves the most meals of all the dining halls.
Bloomfield Hills sophomore Erin Langan has the 14-meal plan, but said she uses her meal swipes 10-12 times per week, sometimes less if she gets tired of the food.
"I use FLEX mostly at The Market when I miss dinner, because the dining halls close so early," Langan said.
Complaints about dining hall hours is common among students.
Operational hours for dining halls are based partially on how much money is in the operating budget and are adjusted year to year, said Nikki Smith, marketing manager of Campus Dining.
Robinson and Fresh Food Company residential restaurants are open from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. to Monday through Thursday, from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, and from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
The Merrill restaurant has the same hours but are closed on Saturday and Sunday.
Real Food on Campus is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, and from 10:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Campus Dining takes students needs into account when setting hours for the dining halls by looking at historic customer counts data and student survey results, said Marquardt.
"It's unrealistic that we’re going to have enough time to eat three times a day, so I think you waste a lot of money by having (plans with a lot of meals a week)," said Romulus senior Jessika Kennedy.
Dining hall hours also don't align with college students' eating habits, Kennedy said, and force students to spend more FLEX dollars.
"I definitely think they should have later times in the residential restaurants," she said. "Who eats at 5 in the afternoon, especially for dinner? I think the restaurants should be open later. For people who have night class like me if I was on campus I wouldn’t be able to eat dinner (that early)."
She was considering purchasing a meal plan as a nonresidential student before she realized how expensive it was, Kennedy said. Prices for off campus student meal plans range from $614 - $1,338.
In fall 2015, 65,000 meals were served to non-residential students.
If students do not use all of their weekly meals, the meals do not roll over, which Marquardt said is typical for a collegiate residential dining program. FLEX dollars roll over from fall to spring semester, but not academic years.
The university doesn't keep track of how many FLEX dollars go unused.
All recipes are implemented with cost in mind, Marquardt said. This year, Campus Dining introduced a four-week menu cycle, which means four weeks of standardized menus repeat in a cycle during the semester. However, Marquardt said this change was made "to positively impact student satisfaction, acceptability and variety," not because of cost.
"Each of the four restaurants are on different weeks in the cycle at any given time to offer the most variety," said Heidi Klebs, menu information systems manager.
