<p>My DS pledged a fraternity this semester. He was charged in September for the Greek Plan as part of his dues which I paid on 9/9. He was on the schools’s 160 Meal plan.</p>
<p>I just discovered we were charged for both plans and he was never switched over. Bama Dining told me it was his responsibility to inform them by Oct. 1. My DS swears NO ONE informed him that it was his responsibility. He was told the fraternity does it.</p>
<p>I’ve emailed the Chief Financial Officer of the frat. Student Receivables says its not their job and Bama Dining didn’t care either. </p>
<p>When the University generates an official list of all new Greek members, all students on that list will be automatically downgraded from their original plan to the Option 1 plan with 55 meals per semester.
All requests for downgrades to the Greek 55 or no-meal plan ($197 fee) must be received by September 1st for fall sorority pledges and the first Monday in October for the fall fraternity pledges. There is no deadline to upgrade meal plans.</p>
<p>** Students are responsible for confirming the meal plan downgrade on
their student account. **</p>
<p>If your son didn’t use the meals, I would continue to pursue this with the University. They were supposed to automatically put him on Greek 55 (which they apparently did) and remove him from the required mealplan (which they apparently did not). Yes, the student is responsible for confirming the downgrade, but the cost of the regular meal plan is too high to just let it go. I would continue to fight this and take it as high as I needed to. It is the school’s mistake. Sure, your son should have checked, but I don’t think these kids are perusing the school website to see all the things they’re supposed to do.</p>
<p>ETA: I would also take the position with them that receiving a bill (and PAYING the bill) for the Greek 55 should have been all the confirmation you needed to do to see that he’d been switched. There is NO WAY that I would pay for the regular meal plan under these circumstances.</p>
<p>Why is UA charging for both meal plans in the first place? Surely there is a system that flags up if you’re on the Greek 50, you aren’t on any other plan? This is a puzzling situation to me. Or, OP, are you saying that “He was charged in September for the Greek Plan as part of his dues…” that the <em>fraternity</em> is charging him as part of his fraternity dues (as well as UA charging him)? </p>
<p>He was charged by the Fraternity for the Greek plan and we were charged for the school 160 Meal plan. He told me he was not specifically told by anyone in the frat to report to Bama Dining that he had pledged. What angers me is that I had called the Office of Student Receivables in September asking specifically about the switch and they didn’t tell me to report the change to Bama Dining.</p>
<p>I am going to call the fraternity tomorrow because I think they made the mistake. This is really infuriating because the cost for 2 meal plans was aabout $2700. </p>
<p>BUT I also believe you/son are at fault for not resolving this back in September or October when the charge for the 160 meal plan was not refunded/downgraded (as you expected it to be). Have you been fighting this since then (!)…or just now escalating this problem? </p>
<p>I do believe that UA will come to the party, so to speak - they are very reasonable people if you are reasonable with them. Try to find a way where everyone is in a win-win situation. This may involve some compromise on your part. It may be that this semester you have to suck this ‘error’ up, and start again Spring semester (even tho the dining contact is for a full year, they may be willing to see the unreasonableness of this). Ditto for your fraternity. Good luck.</p>
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ETA: I would also take the position with them that receiving a bill (and PAYING the bill) for the Greek 55 should have been all the confirmation you needed to do to see that he’d been switched. There is NO WAY that I would pay for the regular meal plan under these circumstances.</p>
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<p>This is your best point. The Univ’s system is WRONG if it allows a student to be signed up for two meal plans. The signing up for the Greek plan should immediately flag and remove the other plan. </p>
<p>It is UA that has the messed up system. To expect that a student would think that they have to “do more” after PAYING for the Greek Plan is just silly!!!</p>
<p>What was the process that notified them to put your child on the Greek Plan? Whatever that process was should be one that immediately removes the existing Plan. That is just pure common sense. THEY are the ones with the flawed system…they’re the ones who have charged YOU for two plans!</p>
<p>No, re-read post #4. UA charged the student only for the 160 Meal Plan; the fraternity charged this family for the meal plan at the fraternity (whatever that ‘plan’ is called). Students have a choice of reducing their meal plan (once they pledge) down to either the Greek 55, OR, to have no meal plan at all (and pay a per semester fee for doing so). OP clearly stated that the fraternity charged this student for the “Greek 55” (but if that is what the fraternity is calling it, that’s the wrong nomenclature)…UA dining has no idea what Greek Organisations charge their pledges for meal plans within the houses, so all parties are a part of this mistake, and all parties (UA, the fraternity, and the family) should work together for a solution. IMO.</p>
<p>Correct. OP’s S is not a freshman: freshman only have the option of the unlimited (unless they downgrade as part of pledging). upperclassmen can take part of the bronze/160 meal plan. </p>
<p>I suppose there are some Greek students who keep their meal plan even after pledging, so that is why UA requires students/Greek orgs to verify who is on the pledge list and who wants to downgrade. The downgrade is not automatic - the student/family needs to request it, is why there is this issue.</p>
<p>Oh . . . the student not being a freshman explains why the meal plan wasn’t automatically reduced. I think the GLOs only notify Bama Dining about freshmen, since the Greek 55 or any other meal plan is not required for upperclassmen. If your son has not used the meals, though, I would still be pursuing this. It was a mistake, and one that didn’t cost the University or Bama Dining anything if your son wasn’t required to have a meal plan and didn’t use it. I’d think a little flexibility could be shone if you were persistent enough. Good luck.</p>
<p>ROLL TIDE!!! Glad it worked out for you as best as it could.
Oh, and I wanted to add/ask, make sure that you are satisfied with the UA plan you are signed up for, for the Spring, because that agreement was a full year commitment, not a semester commitment. In other words, unless you have a legit downgrade officially processed by UA, they will continue to charge you for that 160 meal plan. The deadline to confirm your Spring schedule and pay your student account has passed - I’m assuming you had a look at that and there were no problems? </p>
<p>Thanks aeromom! And yes, have spoken with Bama Dining and he is cancelled for the Spring semester school plan.
I have to say everyone at the University and the Fraternity were very helpful, understanding and fair. We love this school. ROLL TIDE ROLL!</p>