Meal plan vote must be open

Every year, the meal plan for students in the residence halls is contentious. To put together a workable meal plan, tough decisions must be made, and students often don't understand the difficult choices. \nThere's a reason they don't understand them.\nThe process to create the meal plan and decide what to change in the dining halls is done by a small group of elected student representatives and Residential Programs and Services administrators. Those students and administrators form the meal plan committee, which makes the final recommendations for the plan.\nWhen an IDS reporter tried to attend the committee's meeting last week to learn about the process and report on it to you, our readers, the meal plan committee closed the meeting to everyone. They ordered the three students in the room -- IDS reporter Adam Van Osdol, Residence Halls Association President Kenji Minami and Wright Quad Executive Vice President Elizabeth Wysong -- to leave.\nThe meal plan affects thousands of IU students and how their money is spent. They should be able to follow the process of how that decision is made. By having meal plan meetings open, students can give suggestions on how they want their money spent. If the meal plan committee would give them a chance, they might have valuable ideas. \nIn the worst-case scenario, they will get the chance to understand why those tough decisions have to be made.\nPreventing their own constituents and the media from attending meetings is unnecessary and creates distrust between RPS and the thousands of students who live in the dorms -- and under the policies of RPS.\nThe one member of the committee that voted to keep the meeting open, Foster Quad President Laura Edwards, should be commended for trying to uphold the ideal of openness. When the committee meets again Friday afternoon, the rest of the committee should follow her example and open their meetings to the students they are supposed to be representing.\nWhen they operate in secret, there is no hope that anyone's interest but their own will be represented.\n