<p>Starting the 2012-2013 school year, all students in the Class of 2015 onward who are living on campus will be required to have a meal plan? Sure hope that's not true...</p>
<p>if this is true, it is bad… I lived in Ludwell without a meal plan and it worked great. Really dumb to have to spend $1000 for something students don’t want.</p>
<p>I’d hope Ludwell residents, at least, would be exempt.</p>
<p>Seems like a bit of a tail-wagging-dog approach - few want to sign up because quality is low, and plans offered are too inflexible. So, rather than improving quality and increasing flexibility, they’ll just require everyone to sign up, and only then will improve quality (allegedly). More likely, it’ll reduce the incentive to improve quality, and the extra dollars will simply be pocketed.</p>
<p>If you want to improve quality, start by firing Aramark, synonymous with mediocre catering …</p>
<p>I heard somewhere that those with easy access to full kitchens (Ludwell & the sorority houses) would be exempt.</p>
<p>We’ve contacted our colleagues in Dining Services for more information about the meal plan policy and will post again once we hear back from them.</p>
<p>[Meal</a> plan purchase mandatory for incoming class | Flat Hat News](<a href=“http://www.flathatnews.com/content/75546]Meal”>Flat Hat News)</p>
<p>Meal plan purchase mandatory for incoming class</p>
<pre><code>By Katherine Chiglinsky April 29, 2011
</code></pre>
<p>Dining hall meal plans will soon become a required component of on-campus life for future students at the College of William and Mary.</p>
<p>Starting with the class of 2015, students will be required to purchase a meal plan each year they choose to live on campus. The policy, which will take effect in fall 2012, will not affect current students at the College.</p>
<p>This change in dining policy stems from Dining Servicess need for increased revenue. Dining Services aims to increase the quality of the dining halls with the expanded participation in meal plans.</p>
<p>Our goal is that we can take the additional money and use that to finance improvements to our various dining facilities, Vice President for Finance Sam Jones 75 M.B.A. 80 said. We really need to improve on that and make some fairly significant investments. If we have increased participation, well have more revenue to make those changes.</p>
<p>The College, along with the University of Virginia and Washington and Lee University, is one of the few Virginia schools that currently does not require all students living on campus to purchase meal plans.</p>
<p>Virginia Tech, for example, mandates that all residential students buy dining options and was named the Best Campus Food by the Princeton Review in 2009.</p>
<p>We recognize that we need to generate additional revenue to fund those changes, Carolyn Davis, director of auxiliary services, said. The majority of Virginia schools require residential meal plans. So, we have looked at that as a potential for our own campus.</p>
<p>While the plans for the revenue have not been finalized, the College hopes to utilize the money to expand the Sadler Centers capacity and change the Marketplace layout.</p>
<p>By having the opportunity to expand seating, we hope to offer a better dining experience at the Sadler Center, Resident District Manager for Dining Services Matt Moss said. We recognize a need for new and innovative cuisine on campus and a need to expand our facilities.</p>
<p>Additionally, the College hopes to utilize information from the students and dining services to re-evaluate current dining options.</p>
<p>Weve discussed the need for a wide variety of meal plans, Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler 88 Ph.D 06 said. Well look at some data at how students have purchased meal plans in the past and well work with a food services advisory committee and other students to help develop the program.</p>
<p>Over the next four years, the College hopes to phase in the new required residential meal plans in order to improve the quality of Dining Services services and facilities.</p>
<p>The better we can make our dining program overall, the more students will value it, Ambler said.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>this is a joke… make meal plans mandatory so you can make them better? Perhaps they should improve the product if they want more customers, rather than forcing students to add an unnecessary cost to already rising tuition.</p>
<p>cap, thanks for the helpful reponse.</p>
<p>Soccerguy, while of course there’s always room for improvement let’s not ignore all of the improvements that Dining Services has made. In the past several years they’ve renovated the dining halls, added additional options, created event nights, improved hours, etc. And there’s a committee of students in W&M’s student government that serve on a dining services committee so that student suggestions and criticisms can be heard.</p>
<p>I’m do not want to ignore the good things about dining. IMO it was fine when I was at W&M. I don’t think requiring people to have meal plans so dining can be “improved” is the right way to go.</p>
<p>Since they are doing this, I hope they will offer very small meal plans… living on campus should not actively limit your meal options, which is what happens when you are required to pay to eat at the dining hall, regardless of your preferences, unless you can throw away the thousand dollars.</p>
<p>This will add to the mandatory college expenses, which will ultimately raise prices across the board, so more scholarships can be offered to people who cannot afford this cost.</p>
<p>No doubt Dining Services has certainly considered that students who live on campus each have different wants and uses for the dining halls. Even though costs will rise, when they do so financial aid generally increases to help offset those costs that students cannot afford to take on themselves</p>
<p>Yes, but you’re missing the core of the issue… the food is not that good. That, along with cost, are the two main reasons why people don’t like meal plans.</p>
<p>As a reality check: what student wants to spend time cooking their own food and cleaning their own dishes when they can have someone do those things for them, and instead spend the time on socializing, studying, etc.? If the food was good and affordable, students would flock to the dining halls of their own accord.</p>
<p>A compulsory meal plan policy gives dining services exactly zero incentive to care about the quality of their offerings. The idea that the food will improve once everyone is forced to buy it is questionable at best.</p>
<p>Also, the smaller meal plans are a joke. Dining services creates a disincentive to choose a small meal plan. Whether you get 10, 14, or 19 meals in a week, they all cost the same amount. Sure, you get $150 more in flex points with the 10 meals/week plan compared to the 19 meals/week, but that’s a pittance compared to the 135 meals you’ll have to fill in the gap with over the course of the semester.</p>
<p>The block plans are even more ridiculous. $799 for $275 in flex points plus 50 swipes. Subtract out the $275 in flex points (and the 10% tax it helps you avoid), and that’s $496.50 for 50 swipes, or $9.93 per meal. Breakfast costs $7.35 at the door, lunch costs $10.75, and dinner costs $11.25 (tax included). If you used your 50 swipes evenly across breakfast, lunch, and dinner (50 doesn’t divide nicely by 3, so I used 16 breakfasts, 17 lunches, and 17 dinners), that’s $491.60. The block 50 plan actually loses you money compared to paying at the door - especially so the more you use it for breakfasts. The only way you can come out ahead on it is by using it far more heavily for lunch and dinner. (And even if you used it for dinners only, it’s a hard sell that $9.93/meal is a fair price.)</p>
<p>Finally, don’t forget that every time you raise tuition or fees or other expenses, and claim that financial aid will rise accordingly, this is done on the backs of those who don’t qualify for aid. So now in addition to subsidizing education and housing, students who don’t qualify for as much aid (especially out-of-state students) will be subsidizing other students’ food as well. I caution you that college costs are spiraling out of control, especially due to increasing financial aid and decreasing government contributions, and those most greatly affected will tolerate it only so far.</p>
<p>It is particularly hard for students with food allergies to get their money’s worth out of a mandatory meal plan. I wonder if exceptions are made for students who fall into this category. Usually dining halls will accommodate such students but the offerings they can safely eat are very limited.</p>
<p>javabytes, if you feel so strongly about Dining Services and the quality of their product there are outlets for you to voice your complaints including the Dining Committee of the SA and Dining Services themselves. The administration at W&M is very accessible to students, one of the unique facets of the W&M community, but they cannot respond if they do not hear any criticisms. </p>
<p>As for costs, increased tuition is not unique to W&M. It’s a sad reality for all colleges and universities. And if costs continue to rise, those students who maybe once didn’t qualify for aid will start to if they are really on the bubble and those who had limited aid will at least get more aid. Yes, it’s not a perfect system but whether you’re talking about colleges or state and federal government, those with more income tend to subsidize those with less. Certainly a goal of the next fundraising campaign will be to focus on raising funds for scholarship and aid so as to improve what we’re already doing for students in terms of assisting them with costs.</p>
<p>bookmobile, our Dining Services staff does work with students who have dietary restrictions and any student who is in need of special diets or food options is encouraged to talk to Dining Services about their needs.</p>
<p>My concern about the food selections at dining services is the lack of healthy food. As parents of a freshman, my husband and I both discussed this with the head of the dining services and the person who was manning the booth about “healthy choices” at W&M when we brought DD to school in August. They didn’t seem to really care or think there was any problem. I was told that the head guy had worked for Disney, like I was supposed to be impressed. He’s cooking for college students now, not little kids who will only eat pizza, hamburgers and hot dogs, but it dosen’t seem that he realizes that. Maybe it has changed over the year, but there was a severe lack of fresh, healthy vegetables and meats. Yes, there’s a salad bar but do you really want to eat salad 2 times a day? He should visit JMU, UVa or VT to see what good college food is. Why can’t W&M serve food like that?</p>
<p>Funny you should mention UVA, because there’s a thread on their board about how horrible their food is.</p>
<p>For some reason, I doubt this is going to happen. Furthermore, the freshman requirement has been in place for a long time and that []ithat* is a reasonable requirement for so many reasons… hall bonding, cooking skills, etc…</p>
<p>Bayberry- I had another DD who went to UVa so I’ve eaten there more than W&M. They had a much better selection including tons of fresh fruits, several hot stations with fresh and healthy meats/veges and a very popular stir fry counter. Also have eaten at JMU several times (DS went there) and again, many healthy choices. I guess everyone has something to complain about, but out of these schools, my opinion is that W&M food has the least healthy choices.</p>
<p>The W&M dining facilities do provide healthy options including salad, soup, sandwiches, etc. More information about the products they use and the more healthy options can be found here: [Welcome</a> to CampusDish at the College of William & Mary!](<a href=“http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSMA/WilliamMary/ContactUs/CampusDietaryInformation.htm]Welcome”>http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSMA/WilliamMary/ContactUs/CampusDietaryInformation.htm)</p>
<p>The Director of Dining Services provided this information to us to help with some of the questions being posed in this thread</p>
<p>The implementation of residential dining plans will enable the college to provide resources to update the current facilities here on campus. With a number of facilities needing to be renovated to meet the current wants and needs of students. This is for not only aesthetics as well as for culinary expansion. Sadlers Center Court and the Marketplace are examples of facilities in need of things like additional seating, greater variety of stations, more provisions for special diets, and greater storage and cooking facilities. These are just two of the locations on campus that need to be updated but there are a number of locations that require some refreshing and expanded options, offering greater variety across campus. Dining services will continue to work with the Food Services Advisory committee and Student Affairs, to look at opportunities to provide greater variety and options across campus as we move forward. We will continue to review the current meal plan structure and as we move forward with this process look at options to adapt current meal plans to student needs.</p>
<p>Many of the same complaints about dining services have been aired before (quality, selection, price, etc.), though in the absence of a compulsory meal plan policy there was little point in exerting too much effort on this when one could simply engage in the time-honored free-market tradition of going to a competitor. And I have previously directly engaged the director of dining services as well as the SA on the issue of meal plan pricing. No one can or wants to explain why the Gold 10 plan costs the same as the Gold 19 plan, or why paying door prices is cheaper than buying the smaller Block plans.</p>
<p>There are plenty of things that make W&M a great school, but dining and parking are not among them. Dining Services and Parking Services are among the two least responsive entities at W&M. At least Parking Services has an excuse… space certainly is limited, and to a large extent their hands are tied if they are to control the problem. But Dining Services chooses not to compete, and forcing students to buy meal plans will only make the problem worse.</p>