Apparantly I'm a Campus Activist Now
Dear Jim Bauer
As an incoming freshman, I had several problems figuring out how the meal system worked, how much food different plans gave you, etc. While my personal problems have been more or less resolved, my exploration of the system revealed certain aspects that strike me as at least poorly engineered, and potentially somewhat deceitful.
Most students and faculty are relatively unaware about how the point system works, and this is not helped by the fact that the residential services staff is in many ways greatly misinformed. Parents are told that a meal point is not equivalent to a dollar; I asked the RS staff in what sense this is true, as every item that can be purchased with meal points costs exactly as many meal points as dollars. It took them several minutes to find someone who knew enough to respond to this question, and their response was that while a meal point will buy a dollar's worth of food, it is not considered equivalent because you do not necessarily pay a dollar for it. Indeed.
This brings me to my biggest problem with the system, the fallacious existence of the 'B' plan. It costs $100 dollars more than the 'A' plan, and gives you 75 more meal points. And by that I mean $75 that can only be spent in certain specified locations. It not only loses you money, but it restricts where you can use the remainder of your investment. It would be better in every instance to simply use the 'A' plan and put $100 dollars on your Compass Card - there is no instance where meal points can be used and Compass cash cannot. Every single one of the hundreds of students on the 'B' (or 'C') plan has lost money by not reading the fine print, or by taking literally residence service's claim that meal points are not the same thing as dollars. This includes (according to the Bon Appetite website) 57% of females and 65% of males on campus. I hesitate to use the word "scam," but I see no justification for this.
(Note: the 'C' meal plan costs $200 more than the 'A' plan and gives 175 more meal points, still losing $25 of food. The largest plan, 'D', costs $300 more and gives 300 more meal points, an even purchase. Of course, you're still paying money that could be used anywhere for points only usable at a few specified locations.)
I would like to meet with you to better understand the origin of these seeming discrepancies, or if possible, to try and reform the meal system. I can be reached by e-mail or by cell at 406-xxx-xxxx.
Sincerely
Devon Rule
As an incoming freshman, I had several problems figuring out how the meal system worked, how much food different plans gave you, etc. While my personal problems have been more or less resolved, my exploration of the system revealed certain aspects that strike me as at least poorly engineered, and potentially somewhat deceitful.
Most students and faculty are relatively unaware about how the point system works, and this is not helped by the fact that the residential services staff is in many ways greatly misinformed. Parents are told that a meal point is not equivalent to a dollar; I asked the RS staff in what sense this is true, as every item that can be purchased with meal points costs exactly as many meal points as dollars. It took them several minutes to find someone who knew enough to respond to this question, and their response was that while a meal point will buy a dollar's worth of food, it is not considered equivalent because you do not necessarily pay a dollar for it. Indeed.
This brings me to my biggest problem with the system, the fallacious existence of the 'B' plan. It costs $100 dollars more than the 'A' plan, and gives you 75 more meal points. And by that I mean $75 that can only be spent in certain specified locations. It not only loses you money, but it restricts where you can use the remainder of your investment. It would be better in every instance to simply use the 'A' plan and put $100 dollars on your Compass Card - there is no instance where meal points can be used and Compass cash cannot. Every single one of the hundreds of students on the 'B' (or 'C') plan has lost money by not reading the fine print, or by taking literally residence service's claim that meal points are not the same thing as dollars. This includes (according to the Bon Appetite website) 57% of females and 65% of males on campus. I hesitate to use the word "scam," but I see no justification for this.
(Note: the 'C' meal plan costs $200 more than the 'A' plan and gives 175 more meal points, still losing $25 of food. The largest plan, 'D', costs $300 more and gives 300 more meal points, an even purchase. Of course, you're still paying money that could be used anywhere for points only usable at a few specified locations.)
I would like to meet with you to better understand the origin of these seeming discrepancies, or if possible, to try and reform the meal system. I can be reached by e-mail or by cell at 406-xxx-xxxx.
Sincerely
Devon Rule