Use it or lose it: University officials look to restructure meal plan options

Monday’s grand opening of Einstein Bros. Bagels at the Muenster University Center marked the first of two transition phases into the newly expanded student union building.

With the second phase set to go in effect at the beginning of the spring semester when the MUC expansion is completed, University of South Dakota officials are looking to evaluate the need to restructure meal plans for the 2014-2015 school year.

According to Jeff Baylor, USD vice president of Marketing, Enrollment and Student Services, a university-comprised committee will assess how students respond to the centralization of dining services in the MUC throughout the spring semester.

“We already know that we’re going to need to evaluate how our meal plans are serving our students as the changes come,” he said.

Changes include the relocation of the Commons into the MUC and the addition of two more national food franchises, Chick-fil-A and Qdoba.

Unsure of how students’ spending habits will adjust with the new dining facilities, Baylor said student surveys and meal plan, flex dollar usage will have a crucial role in the restructuring process.

“We really don’t want to do anything right now because we want to respond to the students and their needs,” Baylor said.

Before any price changes to existing or future meal plan options could go into effect, the university would need to submit their proposal to the South Dakota Board of Regents during their annual budget meeting in April, said Monte Kramer, SDBOR system vice president of finance and administration.

As part of the tuition and fees budget, Kramer said meal plan prices are regulated by the SDBOR using the “Meals Away From Home” consumer price index.

Kramer said while meal plan prices are set by the SDBOR, individual institutions determine meal plan options.

“If they want to add a new meal plan or adjustment we usually let them,” Kramer said.

Under SDBOR rule, all students living on campus are required to have a meal plan, which, according to Phil Covington, associate dean of students, helps to fund part of the university’s operating budgets through a commission agreement between the university and Aramark Corporation, USD’s dining and product services provider.

“We depend on the revenues from dining and housing to be able to do those kinds of things,” Covington said.

Covington said part of Aramark’s operations helped to fund the MUC expansion.

Explaining how the agreement works between Aramark and USD, Covington said 100 percent of the revenue generated by meal plan purchases is given to Aramark, allowing Aramark to develop an operating budget for the year.

“It is part of the contractual relationship we have with them as our campus-dining partner,” he said. “It’s part of their payment, and it’s shifted over to them each semester.”

With seven varying meal plan options set up on a semester-to-semester basis available to students, unused meals and flex dollars carry over from the fall to spring semester, but are forfeited at the end of the spring semester.

Covington said it is up to individual students to ensure they are getting their money’s worth by spending meals and flex dollars before it is forfeited.

“That money has already been given to them, so it’s just a matter of whether or not you, as the student, take full advantage of the money that has been given to them,” he said.

However, sophomore Lindsay Thompson sees the situation differently.

“I don’t think it’s fair that the balances are forfeited,” Thompson said. “We paid for it, so we should get reimbursed or have it transfer over.”

Aramark began taking note of the high percentage of unused meals and flex dollars several years ago, Covington said, so the university began sending notifications to students with high unused meals and flex dollars so students would not be wasting their money.

However, first-year law student Megan Reed said the university should send out more updates than they already do.

“They don’t really tell you how much you have left unless you’re not using it and have a high amount or getting low,” she said.

While meal plans are usually non-refundable, a university appeals board is in place to grant students with special circumstances refunds of up to 50 percent of their unused balance amount.

Covington described a special circumstance as some sort of  “hardship situation,” such as an unexpected illness, and said Aramark allowing a 50 percent refund is a generous offer.

“We don’t have meal plans in place, so we can turn money over to our food service partner Aramark and at the end of the semester, after they’ve built a budget say, ‘We’ve got people who didn’t spend their flex and want a refund,’” he said. “They’ve got a business to run, and we need to be a good business partner.”

Since arriving at USD three years ago, Covington said he has heard no more than five meal plan appeals.

Referencing the Coyote Card website, Covington said students have the ability to check their meal and flex dollar balances at any time, allowing students to “be better informed.”

Along with the opening of the expanded MUC, Covington said the university is preparing to launch a mobile app that will allow students to check and add balances to their meal and flex dollar plans this spring.