Journey to Where?

By TreDarius Hayes

One of the best parts about coming to college is that there is food EVERYWHERE. During the first few weeks, you’ll often come across free food with splurges throughout the year. And when there aren’t vendors and campus organizations throwing free food at you, you’re on your own. You can either use your cash or you could buy a meal plan.

A meal plan is service that you pay for at the beginning of each semester to cover the costs of all of the meals that you will eat in campus dining halls. You can access these meals by swiping your student ID card and then eat away. No debit or credit card need. So essentially, it seems as though you are eating for free because by the middle of the semester when you’re cramming for tests and homework while performing balancing acts between organizations and a part time job, you forget the thousands of dollars that you chucked up at the beginning of the year for those “free meals”.

College campuses all across the country offer meal plans that vary depending on what the specific college thinks is best for its students. With meal plans, you can get access to a meal in a dining hall several times a day, week, or semester. There are various options you can choose based on what you want to eat. And if you wanted unlimited meals a semester, you have that option too if you have the money.

In addition to meal plans, colleges offer what’s called dining dollars or flex bucks to be used exclusively in dining locations on campus. It’s basically a debit card system that you use to buy food at school. And like meal plans, you can choose the number of dining dollars you want based on what your college offers. Many universities do this and often give nicknames to this unique account such as Bobcat Bucks at Texas State University, Meal Money at Vanderbilt University, and Paw Points at Clemson University. Here at the University of Tennessee, they are referred to simply as Dining Dollars.

Some students ask the question “why do I need a meal plan or dining dollars when I can just use my debit card? It’s still money.” I got that question a lot throughout this project. Dining Services at the University of Tennessee, which will be referred to as ‘Volunteer Dining’ throughout this article from now on responds that meal plans result in “increased GPAs, more involvement on campus, and a higher graduation rate.”

Another benefit is that there is a tax break on all dining dollar funds. When you use your dining dollars at a retail location on campus, you pay absolutely no tax, which could save you more money than if you were you use your bank card at the same place. You pay for your meal plan upfront too, so no matter if you hit a financial crisis during the year, you’ll have a meal plan to help you eat. But many students still don’t think that it’s enough to make them want to buy a meal plan. “There are more limits on dining dollars than benefits”, said JaVante White, a sophomore in Kinesiology.

“You can only use your meal plan Monday through Friday at certain times that aren’t always convenient. But it does come in handy when I’m struggling and waiting for pay day, but that’s not often.” JaVante says he will not be purchasing a meal plan next year. “I’m moving to an apartment, so I’ll be buying groceries and cooking a lot more. The money that I would use to pay for a meal plan is just going to make my refund check bigger.” Another limit on dining dollars that many students dislike is that when the semester is over, your remaining dining dollars, if you have any, expires.

Back in November, Volunteer Dining had proposed making meal plans mandatory for all students starting fall 2014. As of now, meal plans are only required for first year students and students living in the new Brown Hall opening next fall, North Carrick Hall, South Carrick Hall, Humes Hall, Reese Hall and Morrill Hall. This new proposal would make all students regardless of classification or residency purchase a meal plan. All first year students would have to get a meal plan to use in dining hall on campus and all other students would be required to purchase at least 300 Dining Dollars.

Reactions to this proposal were feelings of anger from students. A webite called Power UT went live so that students could view the details of the proposal, look at the actual PowerPoint that was used to present it, and leave feedback in the comment section. Students felt like they didn’t need to buy a meal plan because it was a waste of money for those who rarely eat on campus. A reason for many students to move off campus was to avoid campus food and meal plans. But with this new proposal, it doesn’t matter. If you are enrolled, you will buy a meal plan.

On November 11, 2013 in a meeting between Volunteer Dining, UT administration, and the UT Student Government Association, the proposal to have mandated meal plans was tabled. It was just one of many victories for SGA. Much of student’s concerns about dining have been noticed by the Student Government Association. In fact, they have made many strides over the past year to make sure students are getting what they really want.

Members of student government have been actively meeting with UT administration over the past year to deliver new ideas of students wanted. Some accomplishments include the shutdown of a proposed bill that would limit what student fees could be used for in response to Sex Week.

SGA also worked with the Athletic Department to see that student’s seats in Neyland Stadium for football games were moved closer to the field and student group seating maximum size increased from 12 people to 250 people. This allows large organizations and groups of friends to root on the Vols together on game day.

Other small changes included offering scantrons inside convenience stores on campus called POD Markets. POD stands for “Provisions on Demand”, so it was surprising to see that something as simple as a scantron, necessary for the enormous amount of tests you take here, weren’t offered in the same place you could grab a price inflated pack of Oreos that you could get at a grocery store way cheaper. It’s just the little things our campus lacks.

One big implementation that SGA has enacted was the extension of meal equivalency. Volunteer Dining says that “Meal Equivalency is a specified dollar amount allotted per meal (i.e. a “meal equivalent” amount) for dining at select retail restaurants, replacing the Dining Hall Meal Plan Meal for that meal period.” So that basically means that instead of going to PCB Café to indulge in their ever so charming “all-you-care-to-eat” buffet, you can head downstairs to Chick-Fil-A and get a meal up to the current Meal Equivalency rate of $4.85 and save a few dining dollars as long as you go in between the wee hours of 4:30 and 8:30. There are separate rates and times for lunch and dinner and once the clock hits time it’s over until the next meal period. Another restriction is that “once you use it during a meal period, you cannot use it during that same meal period for a dining hall meal or another retail meal”. SGA is responsible for increasing that rate of $4.85 up from $4.55 which started in August 2013. And more recently, SGA has gotten Volunteer Dining to offer meal equivalency options on Saturdays starting next fall.

On April 23, 2014, news broke that UT administrations once again proposed a mandatory meal plan, this time, set to begin in 2015. Many students were outraged to see this plan reintroduced only a few months after students made it clear that it was something they did not want or need. In this new proposal, all students living on campus would be required to purchase a meal plan. All other students taking six or more credit hours must purchase a minimum of 300 dining dollars each semester. Although this proposal sounds a lot like the last one, it comes with a couple amendments.

For the first time ever, whatever amount in dining dollars left remaining at the end of the semester could be fully refunded to the students. You also have the option of rolling the money over into your All Star account, another debit system on your VolCard. The difference between Dining Dollars and All Star is that you can only use them both for specific things.