CAS, while attempting changes, leaves meal plan lackluster

MJ Dining Hall | Photo courtesy of Emma Mincer

In the weeks since I published the last article on the disaster that is the current dining situation on campus, CAS has, admittedly, made many changes. Nevertheless, the fact stands that they indeed did break something that didn’t need fixing. 

While it's great to see the efforts at positive improvement, and I did appreciate Mat Felthousen, the executive director of CAS, and President Battles going around dining halls to receive feedback on the current situation, these efforts have so far been lackluster.  

Let me preface this by saying that I do not intend to tear either of these people apart—I have no reason to believe that either had any nefarious intent in changing campus dining this semester, and both were very forthcoming when they approached my table in Red Jacket a few days ago to ask for both me and my friends’ opinion on the meal plans. They seemed to genuinely want to listen to our concerns.

Now, allow me to digress. 

I still do not understand how anyone working at CAS, from Felthousen all the way to their student board members, thought that changes to the meal plans were needed. As Mr. Felthousen said, in his town hall with the Student Association, they hadn’t changed the meal plans in 26 years. Why? Because they didn’t need to. 

Declining balance was freeing—you had the ability to use it anywhere on campus, not to mention it was cheaper. It is personally insulting when the student body, who as a quick reminder pay for CAS’s very existence, were not made aware of key changes being made to something of maximum importance like eating on campus until after they had been finalized and the bills for the fall semester had gone out.  

I was personally looking forward to paying between $1,500 and $1,800 for my meal plan this semester. Instead, I received my bill and saw a charge for an absurd $2,250 for food that when students arrived on campus wasn’t even being served on proper plates. To my understanding, one reason CAS felt the need to change the meal plan was to combat food insecurity, a noble cause, however, I fail to see how you do this by raising prices and taking away healthy options—or even worse, making students participate in a pyramid scheme to get them.  

I cannot see how this is an “improvement” that makes on-campus dining “easier”. I understand that the pandemic has had negative effects on the CAS, but we are all still feeling them. The last thing we should have to do is pay more for fewer options.  

CAS also announced this week that Letchworth Dining Hall would be returning, at least in part, next semester. However, I’m deeply worried about the experience that will greet students when they walk into a gutted new Letch, with no more Max Market—again, why did they feel the need to take or “rebrand” such a popular option on campus? It seems to be going the way of fusion: “Get rid of it, the students like it too much!”  

If CAS is so surprised that students hate the changes, they should have listened in earnest to the students before they were made. CAS needs to realize, soon, that when the students like something (Chowhound, declining balance, and a flex account) it shouldn’t be taken away; rather, it should be reinforced. Just because it's popular doesn’t make it wrong, and it shouldn’t hurt your bottom line either.