RPS announces dining hall closings

Residential Programs and Services will close dining services at Teter, Forest and Briscoe quads beginning fall 2001, a cost-cutting measure approved by the RPS meal plan committee comprised of students and RPS officials.\nWednesday night, senior Chris Boudi, chairman of the committee, shared the decision with the Residence Halls Association President's Council.\nWhile facilities will be closing, services will not be reduced, Boudi said.\n"Anything we closed is being moved elsewhere," he said. "We're not taking options away from students."\nTeter Quad deli items will be moved to Wright Quad, while other options now available at Teter will move to Eigenmann Hall. Closing Forest Quad's grill line will allow RPS to add a carryout option at Read Center, Boudi said. Finally, the Briscoe Quad food services will be moved to McNutt Quad, which will keep its Starbucks.\nAt Wednesday's meeting, RHA president Jason Dudich, a senior, asked Boudi whether the solution was a quick fix or a "Band-Aid on a gaping wound."\n"It's the end of closing down centers," Boudi said. "Regionalized dining is now apparent."\nFor weeks, the committee has considered ways to trim $900,000 from the dining halls budget, a task assigned by Patrick Connor, executive director of RPS, Boudi said. Boudi called the changes "inevitable."\nConnor had told the committee to consider dining options by neighborhood, instructing them not to rule out closing facilities. The committee agreed, approving the changes nearly unanimously, and making the decision in time for the changes to be reflected in University publications sent to prospective students. \nAll changes recommended by the meal plan committee will be enacted, Connor said.\nBoudi said the ultimate goal is to provide the best service possible to all residence hall students, keeping in mind realistic limits.\n"A dining utopia can never be reached," Boudi said. "There is no way it can meet the preferences of all students. Our goal is to make sure that the needs of the students are met."\nNot all students at the meeting were pleased with the committee's decision.\n"I don't feel that the students have any say regarding the meal plan," said sophomore John Goo, vice president of student affairs for RHA. \n"(RPS) lets (students) sit on the committees to let us think we have a role," said Goo, who did not sit on the RPS meal plan committee.\nMembers of the committee said they disagreed with Goo's perception of the process.\nBesides closing dining facilities, certain items will no longer be available in campus convenience stores. Boudi said some items are not cost effective and do not fall under the "category" of meal points, including batteries, cough medicine and detergent.\nRecent IU Student Association bill\nNov. 2, IUSA passed a resolution recommending changes in the meal plan. The resolution encourages additional meal plan options including purchasing no meal points for the 2001-2002 academic year.\nThe bill calls the current system "monopolistic," and said it "offers no incentive for RPS to improve quality, service or availability of on campus dining facilities." It argues that costs are unchecked and inappropriately high.\nThe RHA President's Council members said they were disturbed by the lack of notification from IUSA about the bill and the sense that it unnecessarily attacked them.\nBoudi said decisions, including budgets for next year, have already been made.\n"I am a bit perturbed that no one from IUSA came to us," Dudich said. He said the bill gave even more reason for representatives from IUSA and RHA to sit in on each other's meetings.\nMeal plan approved\nNext year's meal plan options and other changes were also announced Wednesday.\nThe three meal plan options will be $2,080, $2,390 and $2,600, with the option of an additional $250 to be used in the Indiana Memorial Union. Freshmen will be required at least to purchase the $2,390 plan. Meal plan options will not go up in cost next year, but the IMU points option is being reduced from $350 to $250 in response to a large amount of unused points. Sophomore Erin Ransford, a representative from Foster Quad, said the closings helped the committee avoid raising meal plan costs.