The Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) and Carleton’s Dining Services will be trimming the fat on existing meal plans by only offering two for students living on residence starting in the 2015-16 school year.
Students staying in traditional residences will only have the option to choose the all-access dining plan. Students in suite-style residences will have the added option of a seven meals per week plan. Both plans come with dining dollars, which can be used at any Aramark food business on campus. Those living in Leeds and Frontenac will have the added option of opting out completely because they have kitchenettes.
Graham Pedregosa, RRRA’s vice-president (administration), said the residence association wanted to make the dining hall more accessible to students.
“It has been a problem for years. A lot of RRRA administrations have tried to find solutions,” he said.
Pedregosa said this year RRRA had the opportunity to have monthly discussions with dining services.
“That’s something that did not happen last year. We weren’t able to talk to somebody who actually worked there,” he said. “We were able to create that open dialogue.”
Students living in traditional residences are currently offered a choice of five different meal plans including meal plan F, which offers unlimited access to the dining hall.
Ed Kane, the assistant vice-president (university services) said in an email that the all-access dining plan will be the equivalent of meal plan F with the addition of dining dollars.
Students will not be paying more than the current price of meal plan F, he said, and the new all-access plan will include dining dollars, which they previously did not.
While the amount of dining dollars is yet to be decided, Kane said it would be roughly $200 a year.
Kane said they introduced meal plan F a couple years ago after RRRA requested an unlimited meal plan option.
“We’ve decided it seems to meet the needs of the students who would like to go into more than one meal period and not have a missed meal factor, which have always been a complaint of students,” he said.
Pedregosa said sometimes students had too many meals while sometimes they had too few.
“You had leftover meals you couldn’t use in the next week, so students always had to use up their meals,” he said. “It’s always frustrating. This alleviates that problem too.”
First-year students will be required to purchase the all-access dining pass.
Kaitlyn Gilham, a first-year neuroscience and mental health student, said she would pay more for an unlimited meal plan.
“I think that’s a great idea. I’m a first-year living on residence with the 19 meals per week plan,” she said. “On Wednesdays I have non-stop classes and labs until 4:30 so I always grab food immediately afterwards. It’s pretty irritating that I’m not able to re-enter the caf after that time, even though I have lots of meals to spare, because I usually get hungry again around 8 to 9 p.m.”
“I usually end up getting a late dinner at Oasis, which obviously is more expensive and not as healthy,” she added.
Gilham said she would consider living in residence if the meal plan was more convenient, but said not everyone would agree.
“I could definitely see people being upset about not having options,” she said.
Alexandra Tassielli, a first-year psychology student, said students should have more dining options.
“If there was another option I would have decreased and put the money towards dining dollars,” she said. “If anything I think there needs to be more dining options.”
Tassielli said the options offered would be “a major factor in weighing pros and cons of living on campus.”
“Some people can’t afford it, and I wouldn’t want to waste money. It would be cheaper for me to just pay the caf per meal. I would prefer more dining dollars,” she added.
Pedregosa added an all-access dining plan simplifies the options for students.
“The paperwork and administration work with a change of meal plan is a long process of waiting and signing papers,” he said. “Students wanted to make it simpler.”
According to Pedregosa, the majority of first-year students do not have meal plan F.
