The following piece is an opinion and does not reflect the views of The Eagle and its staff. All opinions are edited for grammar, style and argument structure and fact-checked, but the opinions are the writer’s own.
American University’s meal plans give students a variety of dining options with convenient tools. However, these meal plans are overly complicated, leading to students rarely utilizing all of the perks of each plan, such as dining dollars and on-campus mobile order credit.
When I arrived at American University, I was excited to see what my dining options were, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my meal plan included Subway, Panera Bread and other on-campus chain restaurants. Ordering my first Subway sandwich as part of my meal plan almost felt surreal, as I realized that I could have these options every day.
However, a couple of days later, my Subway sandwich order was rejected, and the lady working the register said I was out of meal exchanges. I had never heard of a meal exchange before, and after paying for my sandwich, I researched my meal plan online. I found I was on the All Inclusive Plus plan, which gave me seven meal exchanges per week. I didn’t know this before, and I didn’t know which day this weekly amount was reset. I came to the University uninformed about my meal plan and had questions even after doing research, as the information was not straightforward or relayed to me.
While the meal plan has shortcomings, it definitely has its benefits. The University boasts nine on-campus locations where students can use meal exchanges. Additionally, students can order ahead of time from these locations on Grubhub, allowing for a convenient experience. I’ve personally used this feature when I had a short gap between classes and needed a bite. Plans required for freshmen at the University also include unlimited use of TDR.
The University’s meal plan options for freshmen include the All Inclusive Plus plan and the All Inclusive Premium plan, with the latter being marginally more expensive and comprehensive. Both meal plans are quite complicated, with five different aspects to each. Each meal plan includes access to TDR, meal exchanges and guest meals, which can be used for friends and visitors who do not have a meal plan. These plans also include dining dollars, which can be used at any on-campus location, and on-campus mobile order credit, which can be used to order food from select on-campus locations.
A meal plan with five different aspects is too complicated, especially when the University does not relay adequate information about these meal plans to incoming freshmen. A couple weeks before the semester ended, many of my friends realized that they still had most of their dining dollars left. Many didn’t know about on-campus mobile order credit until their second or third semester of college.
The University should simplify the meal plan by combining dining dollars and on-campus mobile order credit, as students generally use these for the same purpose. These two forms of credit could just be called dining dollars, and students would effectively have the same amount of money in a simpler model. This way, students can more easily gauge how much they should be spending throughout the semester. This simple meal plan would be easier for incoming freshmen to master.
The University can also increase overall efforts to educate students about the meal plan. The university could teach students about the meal plan as part of an orientation event for incoming freshmen. The University could also send students an email at the beginning of the year explaining their meal plan options.
While it might seem like students should be proactive about researching their meal plans, it is important to consider that incoming freshmen have plenty of other issues to think about when arriving on campus. With important experiences like move-in, new classes and making new friends, students shouldn’t be expected to research confusing five-part meal plans, especially when University resources on these meal plans still leave students with an abundance of questions.
Students should be given more straightforward information about how to buy meals, especially in a time where they are adjusting to a new environment. Since American University requires that freshmen have one of the two most expensive meal plan options, the University should be responsible for educating students about these plans.
Avyay Sriperumbudur is a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences and a columnist for The Eagle.
This article was edited by Alana Parker, Rebeca Samano Arellano and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks and Charlie Mennuti.
