Committee might expand meal plan

As part of an extended look into the future of residential dining services, the Meal Plan Committee will consider offering more dining options to students returning to the residence halls.\nThe committee considered allowing students entering into their fourth year of continuous residency the option of selecting the Willkie I plan, which allows students complete freedom in selecting the number of points in their meal plan, according to a statement.\nThe committee began discussing the possibility last Friday and expects to make a decision by Friday. Such a move would be the first step in possibly extending the plan to other returning students.\nAll students who live in residence halls have to have a meal points plan. The choice available is selecting a dollar amount from one of three set plans. This was how it used to be here, and for most students, that is how it is today.\nBut residents of Willkie, RPS apartments and Mason currently have their own unique option called the Willkie I plan. It lets them decide if they want to have meal points, and if so they are given the flexibility to put as much or as little money as they want into it. \nThis plan was enacted when Willkie was the only residence hall without its own dining center. \nThe popularity of its flexibility, and last year's closing of several dining centers, has prompted the RPS Meal Plan Committee to look into extending the Willkie I plan further.\n"We are currently discussing the possibility of expanding the Willkie I plan to residents who have lived in housing for four years," said Forest Quad President Laura Edwards.\nWith its blank check approach, the Willkie I plan would give students more liberty to decide how much and where they want to spend their money. It would also encourage students to stay in the residence centers, said senior Ilia Smith, the president of Willkie.\n"It is a way to reward students who have been in the dorms all four years," she said. "It gives more freedom to let students eat where they want."\nPart of the discussion of the implementation of the plan revolves around its financial consequences. Allowing residents to choose to not use the meal points program would almost certainly result in a drop in participation.\n"We're looking at the long term process of phasing this is," said Errol Huffman, business consultant for dining services. "We have to see what we can do and what we can't do financially"