RPS wants to restructure meal plan

Students living in the dorms might be able to spend their meal points at the Indiana Memorial Union as early as the 2006-2007 academic year. \nUnder a new plan proposed by Residential Programs and Services, a student buying a $1,000 meal plan would pay $600 for overhead and get $400 worth of meal points. To compensate, RPS plans to lower food costs accordingly, so $1 soda under the current plan would now cost $0.40 under the proposed plan.\nStudents would pay a 60 percent fee for all meal plans that would cover the overhead and operating costs of RPS Dining Services. The remaining 40 percent would be counted toward actual dining dollars, though the price of a meal in the food courts would be reduced by 60 percent.\nCurrently, 100 percent of the money students pay to RPS for meal plan go towards dining dollars. Ideally, the plan wouldn't cost students any more money, or give them less value for their dollar.\n"If you spend $2 on a hamburger, part of that $2 goes to cover overhead allocations, goes to cover money put into capital reserves for the future improvements to the dining operation," said RPS Executive Director Pat Connor. "It goes not just into the cost of the food but into the paper, the paper wrapper. It goes into all the staff, not just of the salaries not just of the staff who is serving it, but into the central administration."\nHe said about 60 percent of all money spent on food in an RPS food court covers overhead, while 40 percent covers the cost of the actual food.\nConnor said a 21 ounce soda in the food courts, which currently costs $1.19, would only cost 50 cents in meal points under the new plan.\nThe primary advantage of the plan is that it could allow students to spend their meal points at the IMU, and possibly eventually at locations off campus -- like campus access points.\n"Then it comes to making a discussion whether they want to get good value for the dollar, in the purchase or whether they want to have ultimate flexibility," Connor said. "We can allow the students to go back and use meal plan dollars in the union, for example."\nCurrently the IMU has its own meal plan called UnionPlus, which students can use only at IMU dining locations and the Main Library cafe. The IMU previously accepted RPS meal points, but the plan was dropped after one year.\n"The primary reason was that the overhead costs for running the dining halls was included in the meal points," said Bruce Jacobs, vice chancellor for auxiliary services and programs. "A percentage of the points pay for the staff that work in the dining halls."\nConnor said he would consult the meal plan committee of the Residence Halls Association -- the student government body for students living in dormitories -- before implementing the plan.\nBut, the plan has already been rejected by the meal plan committee, said Owen Sutkowski, president-elect of RHA.\n"Once we had a full discussion of it, it was voted down as a committee," he said.\nThe committee, made up of both RHA members and RPS staff, has no binding power on the final decision, but Connor said their findings would weigh heavily on his decision.\nSutkowski, who also sat on the meal plan committee this year as president of Collins Living-Learning Center, said he and his colleagues opted instead of adopting a new meal point system, to try to make changes to the existing meal point system.\n"It's more appropriate to make changes to the plan as it exists now," he said. "You can make smaller changes over a period of time, and those changes will be beneficial to students."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael \nZennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.