Meal plans changing

Gompei's employer, Linda Acker, is serving Liz Hawkes in the new Campus Center. Photo by Jonathan Pesch

Students who decided to live on campus next year were faced with many changes in the Meal Plan. The first change is that there is no longer a 10 meal plan, and the 180 plan was changed to a 190 plan. The Premier Pass was replaced by the VIP plan which allows students to use one of their regular meals that they would use in Morgan or Founders toward $4.75 of a meal in the Campus Center.

WPI got rid of the 10 meal plan because this year only thirty people signed up for the plan and it was rather cost inefficient for those on the plan. The main reason that the 180 plan was changed to the 190 plan was that last year when plans were being made for the meal plan this year, a draft was submitted for the 180 plan which included $175 bonus points instead of the regular $100. It accidentally made it onto the resident application and 300 students signed up for the plan before the mistake was realized. This cost the school $80,000, so in order to go back to the $100 bonus points, they had to up the number of meals to 190. This was also beneficial to those students who were running out of their meals before the end of the term. The Treasury Office decides upon the prices of the meal plan each year. "They ask us to supply the prices of the meal plans for other schools so that they may stay competitive with other schools such as Holy Cross and RPI," says Joe Kraskouskas, Director of WPI Dining Services.

The new VIP plan will allow students to use their bonus points whenever they want to get an extra meal, however, they now can use meals toward food at the Campus Center as well. Kraskouskas believes that there will be a significant increase in students using the Campus Center for meals with the new meal plan. The $4.75 toward a meal in the Campus Center is up from this year's Premier plan price of $3.75. The VIP Plan will allow people to still use Grab and Go if they are in a hurry and don't want to wait in the lines at the Campus Center. Chartwells sees Grab and Go as a standard part of the meal plan which any plan allows students to use.

Students will soon see some changes as card access has been added to the vending machines on the first floor of the Campus Center. The vending machines are in an area of the Campus Center that will be open as long as the Campus Center is open. The Ritazza was kept open in Fuller Labs even though they were planning to close it once the Campus Center opened. This is because many people complained that it was going to be closed and President Parrish stepped in and asked Chartwells to keep it open. Future plans for the Ritazza in Fuller is that it may move into a special section of the Library after the renovations have been completed. However, this may not happen if the popularity of the cart fails after the Campus Center is open for a while.

Chartwells is looking to add more outside eateries to the card system, however they have to watch the off campus usage. For example, if too many people are going off campus for food, and not using their money on campus, that could create a loss in funds causing the program to stop. The program allows students the option of eating off- campus when the on-campus food areas may be closed. They have thought about adding another account like the money you can put on your card for Tatnuck Booksellers that could be used just for off-campus dining/takeout facilities. Chartwells wants to continue to add options to the meal plan each year to accommodate the needs of the students.