Wouldn't it be nice to swipe your student ID and buy a sandwich at Au Bon Pain?
Well, you can -- at Yale.
Yale University's dining plan, like those at many other urban universities, incorporates the option for students to use their meal plans at local retail establishments like Au Bon Pain.
Yale uses what is commonly called a points system, where, aside from purchasing a given number of meals each semester, the student also purchases flexible points or dollars that can be used at local establishments.
But while Penn's financially troubled dining system has undergone a major overhaul in the past year, no option currently allows students to take advantage of the approximately 140 retail establishments around campus with a simple swipe of their PennCards.
Penn's closest rival to these dining point systems are Dining Dollars, which are part of some of the various meal plans offered to students. But Penn's Dining Dollars cannot be used at facilities that are not owned by the University. And even most University-owned food retailers, such as the cafes in Williams Hall and the Penn Bookstore, do not accept Dining Dollars.
Campus Dining Services Marketing Manager Mary Ruggiero declined to say whether Penn will implement a new dining option to incorporate local vendors anytime soon, but she did say that Dining constantly looks for ways to make things better for students.
"Campus Dining Services is always exploring a variety of ideas to see what would help both local retailers and our customers," she said in an e-mail.
Penn's dining plan came under heavy scrutiny last spring when Dining officials, in an effort to stabilize the falling number of customers coming through their halls, eliminated the smallest meal plan option open to upperclassmen and instituted a mandatory meal plan for all freshmen. At the time, many students complained that larger meal plans were not suitable for a University with many local restaurants and food trucks.
Yale's plan includes the option for students to purchase a meal plan with "flex dollars." These flex dollars can be used at three local restaurants, in addition to a convenience store and a food court run by dining services.
The local restaurants, including two pizza places and Au Bon Pain, were integrated into the school's dining plan more than two years ago.
In exchange for gaining access to students' meal plan dollars, the restaurants agree to pay Yale a certain percentage of their profits.
But it is an exchange that retailers are more than willing to make and the addition has proven to be a popular option.
"We get calls all the time from people who would like to be part of the flex system," said Robert Junghandel, Yale Dining's senior director for operations and finance. "It's perceived by local shopkeepers and restaurants that it's a good thing for them to be part of this."
And local retailers at Penn have expressed interest in starting a similar system here.
"Yes, absolutely, 100 percent," said Moravian Cafes' Bonne Crepe cook Said Wardine about interest in participating in a point system with Penn.
John Kimmel, assistant manager at Philly's Steak and Gyro, also at the Moravian Cafes, said that participating in a point system was definitely feasible.
At Columbia University, all meal plans come with points that can be used at eight retail operations run by the University, including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Starbucks.
Columbia decided to integrate a point system into their meal plan for several reasons, including variety and convenience.
Since Columbia has only one dining hall, the University felt it was necessary to offer more choices for students. And the University felt it was equally important to incorporate all available food options into its meal plans.
"There's nothing we offer that isn't included on a meal plan," Columbia's Director of Dining Services Scott Wright said.
And Wright said that the point system has been successful at Columbia as well.
"The points are very popular," he said. "They are the things that give [students] freedom."
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is currently working to expand its point system. While students can currently use meal plan dollars at four campus food trucks and to order delivery from Domino's Pizza, officials hope to soon include more vendors within the campus vicinity.
"Our premise is that if anybody is providing food on campus, they should be on the card," MIT's Office of Campus Dining Director Richard Berlin said.
At Penn, there is an abundance of retailers, many of which were lured to campus by the University itself. Restaurants such as SaladWorks, Beijing at Penn and the new Philly Diner are popular spots for students to grab meals. Yet none of them accept the PennCard.
And, according to Berlin, that is a shame, because it does not allow students to take advantage of the urban characteristics of their campus.
Point systems "give students an opportunity to take advantage of the cosmopolitan nature of a school like MIT... and UPenn," he said.
And Berlin noted other advantages of a point system as well.
"It gives you security, ease of access and oftentimes, it gives you a discount," he said, noting that students do not have to pay taxes on meal plans.
But these added benefits sometimes come with a price. Dining officials stressed that universities have to work hard to maintain solid dining halls while giving students the option to eat elsewhere.
"It's a balancing act," Berlin said. "Sometimes our on-campus stuff suffers."
"It's really a case of understanding what's best for the campus, what the students want and what the facility can do well," Wright said.
