Since releasing information about next year’s meal plan offerings on Monday, we’ve received a handful of questions about the changes. If you are unsure of anything pertaining to the new meal plans, please don’t hesitate to ask. The best place to find information is on our website. Also feel free to send us questions via our Facebook and Twitter accounts, e-mail to a member of our management team or by calling our office at (717) 245-1318.
One of the questions we received is what the impetus for the change was. Before arriving on campus late last fall, our new director Errol Huffman noticed that Dickinson’s meal plan offerings lacked value. This lack of value was highlighted in responses from the student survey completed last year.
Once on campus, Huffman and Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services and Budget Management Steve Hietsch sat down to discuss what Dickinson could do financially to address this situation. “Together we created alternatives that could create value for Dickinson students,” Huffman said. Huffman was also able to leverage his experience in meal plan creation at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. for this project.
From these initial discussions, Huffman took the potential offerings to the newly created Food Advisory Committee (FAC) for initial student feedback. Students involved in the FAC were invited to discuss this with the campus at-large for additional feedback and suggestions. Student enthusiasm was reciprocated and Huffman returned to campus administration to create a more solid plan with defined values for each meal plan category.
With defined plans in hand, Huffman took the new meal plan proposal to Dickinson’s Student Senate for input. “The Student Senate was very happy with the new offerings and supportive of the changes. They supported raising the price of the Apartment Housing Flex Plan given the added value,” Huffman said. The Apartment Housing Flex Plan now has more functionality as Huffman stated Dining Services will be offering bulk food purchasing for students starting in the fall.
Other new additions for the fall are the Any 20 Plan which allows students to budget 20 meals throughout the week. A new late-night snack period is being added, raising the weekly meal period offerings to 27 meals per week. The meals included in the Any 20 Plan can be used in any of those periods (one per transaction). Dining Dollars have also been added to flexboard plans. This account may be used for dollar-for-dollar sales at any Dining Services location on campus.
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