All students to be affected by dining changes

A new residential dining program, which will decrease the number of meal plans available to upperclassmen, was released to students by Dining Services at a Dining Advisory Board meeting Wednesday night. The new meal program, called Penn Dining, will go into effect next semester. The actual decision concerning the changes was made in time to send it out with the freshmen acceptance packets, which have already been mailed. The biggest change increases the minimum meal plan for upperclassmen from 70 to 160 declining meals per year. Other features of the program include making meal plans binding for one year and prohibiting cancellations unless a student is either leaving the University or studying abroad. These changes come just days after Penn decided that all incoming freshmen will be required to sign up for a 17-meal-per-week plan for their first semester. Dining officials did not return repeated phone calls for comment last night. "Their idea is that they want to be good to loyal customers, but unfortunately, there are a lot of students who like to only eat a few meals a week at the dining halls," said Dining Advisory Board member Adrian Jones, a Wharton senior. "My concern that I expressed to dining is that many students are not going to sign up." With such an increase in the size of the smallest plan available, students said upperclassmen may opt not to have any meal plan at all. "It's going to drive a lot of people away," Undergraduate Assembly member and College sophomore Seth Schreiberg said. "I can't eat five meals a week at the dining hall. I think there are a lot of upperclassmen who won't want to either." Students on the board also found frustration in the no-cancellation policy. Jones said he thought that the purpose of the policy would be to raise more money to keep the dining halls in operation. "The idea behind it is that they will be having more people eat at the dining halls, but my impression is that I have to either get150 meals or none, and I think most students will chose to have none," Jones said. "That is why they have the freshmen meal plan -- to cover overhead costs." Penn officials have said in recent days that the new freshman plan is, in part, an attempt to stabilize Dining Services' finances. Schreiberg, also a member of the Dining Advisory Board, said the no-cancellation policy is the least harmful of the new changes. "As upperclassmen it's your responsibility to understand the meal plans and be familiar with them," Schreiberg said. "It's bad, but not as appalling as the other changes made to the meal plan." The Undergraduate Assembly released a statement objecting to the new freshmen meal plan on Wednesday night. UA Chairman Michael Bassik said he is upset that the University did not consult students before reaching such decisions. "We are opposed to the Draconian style in which they are forcing, and we are opposed to the way this decision was reached," the College senior said. But Jones said there are other options. "The college house system is mandating that they keep five dining halls open, but it would make more sense to only keep open three or four," Jones said. But it was the lack of student input on the decision to alter the meal plan that troubled members of the advisory board the most. Students on the board said they were not consulted before the new plan was announced at the meeting. "Last year they did a very good job of getting student input concerning meal plans, and this year they just made the announcement without consulting us," Jones said. "The dining advisory board is supposed to be the group with the most input, and I don't think this was the case." "That was the first time they were going to announce it," Schreiberg noted. "I think it sucks. They didn't consult the Dining Advisory Board -- more specifically, the students."