Students need meal plan flexibility

When this semester ends, students can sell back books they bought but hardly used. They can cancel their cable plans with the University if they find they are not watching as much TV as they thought they would. They cannot, however, get money for the meals they did not use in Leo’s. Freshmen and sophomores who find that they are not using the fourteen or twenty-four meals they purchased per week can reduce their plans, but they must purchase at least ten, and cannot get rid of their plans altogether. As students prepare to pre-register and consider what type of meal plans they want for next semester, it is time for Georgetown and Aramark to rethink the kinds of meal plans it offers students.

Georgetown officials could not find statistics on how many meals go unused at Leo’s. But it is safe to say that even students who are content to eat fourteen times a week at Leo’s are bound to miss dinner every once in a while. Those meals can quickly add up to a lot of lost money for students. For a student with a 75-meal plan ($875), just missing ten meals results in the equivalent of over $100 wasted. Aramark should allow students who do miss meals to roll them over into the next semester.

The number of meals students can roll over would have to be capped, as some sophomores and freshman will inevitably find it impossible to use all the meals they were forced to purchase. Block plans are a good alternative to the meals-per-week plan—or would be, if they were available to sophomores and freshmen. In addition to changing this policy, the University should let juniors and seniors use the block plans at Grab N’ Go stations, which are currently only open to those with weekly plans.

Aramark and the University should also reconsider the guest pass policy. Students on a weekly meal plan get a mere two per semester—not even enough meals to share with a friend visiting for the weekend. Two meals is so few that students are more likely to use them for friends they are meeting in Leo’s than on actual guests—and students should get far more per semester.

On Georgetown’s meal plan website, the description of one plan goes so far as to say that it is “tailored for students.” However, it is hard to see how any of Georgetown’s dining options are designed with all but a few students in mind. Georgetown should plan its meal options around students, not force students into ill-fitting plans.