Excess meal points roll over for 1st time

As the school year draws to a close, freshmen Jordan Conley and Danielle Thompson sit in Wright Place Food Court dining on food purchased with meal points.\nConley has less than 200 points left, but Thompson still has almost 700 remaining. \nBecause of the 75 percent meal-point rollover plan that Residential Programs and Services recently enacted, students this year aren’t scrambling \nas much to use up all their leftover points. \nBefore the rollover option, students had to worry about spending all their points before the semester finished. In the past, the leftover money from unused points would be applied to the RPS budget.\nSandra Fowler, director of dining services for RPS, said that the current meal point system, which is based on students budgeting on their own based on a dollar-amount plan they order in the beginning of the year, changed nine years ago to what it is now.\nBefore, IU had the traditional 20-meals-per-week plan with limited hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No evening meals were offered on Sundays, and students paid the same whether they ate eight meals a week or 18, Fowler said. With this system, uneaten meals were essentially lost.\nUnless there is a demand from students to change, Fowler said she cannot imagine going back to the traditional way of meal point service.\nThe Meal Plan Committee is a division of RPS with an equal amount of students and administration. Sophomore Sarah Clark is the student chair of the committee.\nShe said they are aiming for 100 percent meal point rollover.\nBecause meal points are factored into the budget for expenses such as maintenance costs, the budget is still based around meal points even if students haven’t spent them, Fowler said. \nFowler said she now feels the meal situation on campus is suitable. Each residential neighborhood offers a traditional or homestyle menu, a convenience store and facilities open until midnight. \nStudents seem to agree with Fowler. Most, such as Thompson and Conley, aren’t worried about spending the last of their points.\n“With the 75 percent rollover, I am trying to get rid of points but I’m not trying to save either,” Thompson said. \nBoth Conley and Thompson said they would be angry if there was no rollover. \nThe option of having meal points roll over has somewhat encouraged both freshmen to purchase next year. Conley and Thompson said that they would still purchase a small plan if they lived off-campus because of the ease and convenience that eating on campus offers.\nClark noted that sometimes students in a mad rush to spend points buy cases of water or cleaning supplies for laundry. But, she said, that doesn’t always have to be necessary.\n“If students pay attention, they shouldn’t have to lose $500 of meal points at the end of the year,” she said.