The Elizabethtown College Student Senate met Thursday, Jan. 22, to present and debate new meal plan options. The new meal plan options may replace the plans currently being offered to students.
As the presentation for the new meal plan options began, Student Senate members readied themselves for a debate, which lasted roughly an hour. The debate opened with a brief discussion as to why the new meal plan options had been created.
“The change of meal plans was brought to the table as an answer to students’ complaints about our current meal plans. Students were running out of JayBucks while having numerous meal swipes left,” Class of 2017 President Kirsten Ambrose said of the reasoning behind the new plan creations. The current meal plans left a great gap in students reaching their maximum number of meal swipes in the Marketplace each semester, while running out of JayBucks too soon. “[The amount] of JayBucks was not equating with the rising prices in the Jay’s Nest and were expiring far before the end of the semester. It was time for reconstruction of our meal plans,” Ambrose said.
The current meal plan options listed on JayWeb offers students a fixed amount of meal swipes and Jay Bucks, with the number of guest swipes limited to how many meal swipes you have. The new options, A and B.3, were the top two choices voted on by Student Senate. Option A offers a fixed number of guest meal swipes and a reduced number of meals per semester.
However, it also has increase in the number of Jay Bucks, all dependent on which plan you choose under this option.
Option B.3 operates in the same manner as Option A, having choices for unlimited meal swipes, fixed JayBucks and a fixed number of guest swipes. However, the choices listed in B.3 would be mandatory for all first-year students during the fall semester, and would offer an upgrade option to pay $75 to receive an additional 100 Jay Bucks within the first two weeks of the semester.
First-year Brice Williams, a Student Senate representative of the Class of 2018, said that “there are great things offered by each of the plans. I personally like B.3, just because of the option of 10 guest swipes. It was something appealing to the eye and a little better than seeing eight guest swipes there because people would say, ‘What happened to all my guest swipes?’”
The maximum amount of guest swipes given to each student based on the plan they chose was heavily scrutinized during the debate over which plans to choose. Both Ambrose and Williams agreed that there were steps being taken into account on how to deal with the more limited amount of guest swipes — with ten being the maximum. “There are discussions being held about managing these [guest swipes] for weekends like Homecoming and TGIS so students’ guest swipes are not required for these larger events,” Ambrose said. Williams agreed. “Many times going out and taking your family out to eat is a great option besides going to the Marketplace and using guest swipes,” she said.
Despite some brief confusion over both Options A and B.3, when it came time to vote on the best two options presented at the meeting, those were the options Student Senate believed had the best to offer. Each option has their merits, and the revised plan or plans will be implemented in the near future.
The new options voted on by Student Senate will be sent to Dining Services, who will again review the new plans and make any changes necessary before having their final answer. If you wish to learn more about the new meal plan options, you can visit the Elizabethtown College or Student Senate Facebook pages or contact a member of Student Senate or Dining Services.
