Lauren McKinney
Staff Writer
Meal plans have changed on the University of Wyoming campus this year. Residential Life and Dining attempted to give the students what they may have wanted, but the offer was not as welcomed as they thought.
The residential department changed their meal plan options to include semester block plans. These changes came after doing multiple surveys around campus, and a survey from the National Organization on College and University Food Services (NOCUFS).
Reggie Connerly, director of Dining Services, said the top thing students asked for was flexibility in their meal plans.
“I believe it affects every student differently. If it’s about money, well of course we want cheaper meals. If it’s about a certain food or product that’s what they put down [on surveys],” said Connerly.
With the block plans, Residential Life and Dining is hoping to eliminate this problem. All of the meals can be used at any time in the semester.
Additionally, students that have a block plan are able to use their meals for anyone. So if a student has a friend visiting from out of town, they can come to Washakie with the student as many times as they would like.
Connerly said the block plans are equivalent to having a traditional 12-a-week meal plan with a close price.
In actuality, the lowest block plan cost is just under what a 15-a-week meal plan does. This means there is not a lower option to be bought. There is also no option for upperclassmen who would like a lower option. There are more perks that come with the block plans, but do they make it worth the higher price?
“I mean it’s difficult to do that and be like ‘well these ones can’t have it, but these ones can have it because they’re older.’ Because it’s based on the facilities not really having kitchens, we kind of have to stick with the 12 there,” said Amy Bey, the dining department’s dietitian.
Bey also said most people bought the old plans that are still being offered.
“I don’t know if we just need to do more education with those, or if some of our research that said that everybody wanted more flexibility is not what people wanted,” said Bey.
Hannah Parker, a sophomore at the university, said the reason she actually went down in meals is due to not having time to go to Washakie and not thinking that it was worth the money to pay for more meals.
However, the department still has to follow the regulations set by the Board of Trustees. The Board set the minimum amount of meals per week for freshman at 12, meaning that no freshman can have a lower meal plan.
The location of Washake can be a big concern for many commuting students. It is far away from the main campus and too crowded to justify the walk and wait.
“They’re working on potentially building a new dining facility close to Half Acre,” said Connerly. “That will involve new meal plans.”
Along with a potential new dining facility, Bey said the new residence hall could make way for different and even lower meal plans. However, that is still in the planning stage.
One thing the dining department is hard set on, however, is the fight to eliminate food insecurity. Connerly said the department is on a task force dedicated to helping solve the problem, along with some other proactive endeavors.
“We work with the soup kitchen a lot, but we’re not asking students to go to the soup kitchen. We need to do something on campus that’s a little more tailored to our needs here,” said Connerly.
To try and have more on campus options, the dining department moved the closing hours for all of the union facilities to 9 p.m. This took the place of what was the Late Night option at Washakie.
Connerly said they moved the original late night retail option from Washakie to the Union, in order to increase student involvement in programs that took place there, and to fight food insecurity.
Giving students options on campus is the department’s number one priority, said Connerly. They want to know what students are looking for and how to best serve the population.
