Food Committee Chair Danny McBee '10 has sharply criticized last Sunday's Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council Action, which condemned the meal plan structure and demanded a new structure for Spring 2009. At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26, McBee sent an e-mailed statement to VSA President Jimmy Kelly '09 and The Miscellany News outlining his complaints, focusing on the math used in the resolution. "Since this resolution is such news, you might want to know that they really messed up the math," McBee wrote to The Miscellany.
While Council's meal plan Resolution claims that the average cost of a meal at the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC) is $13 for a student on the "board plan," that value is actually the price of a dinner for a person off of the meal plan. According to McBee, "That point of the resolution, if correct, would read, ‘Someone on the standard meal plan purchasing a $7 meal at the ACDC last year would have actually paid $12.95. Now they are paying $10.96 for the same meal.'"
Vice President for Student Life Nate Silver '10 responded in an e-mailed statement, "We said that the price of dinner on the meal plan is $13 because that is the price that a walk-in customer would pay. The prices for walk-in customers were determined based on the meal plan price."
McBee explained the math in his e-mail to Kelly. "The correct thing to do would be to take the cost of this year's standard meal plan ($2110 per semester), subtract the $290 in Retreat points (since one Retreat point now = $1) and then divide the remaining amount by the number of meals ($1820/166) =$10.96. Now, divide this number by the $1.85 per ACDC point from last year, and it works out to $5.96. Therefore, for the standard meal plan, someone who spent $6 or more at ACDC for a meal last year would be better off on the all you care to eat plan, not the à la carte plan.
According to Silver, "$10.96 is the average cost per meal, so while [McBee] says we're paying $10.96 for dinner, we're also paying $10.96 per breakfast and $10.96 per lunch." For walk-in customers, breakfast costs $9 and lunch costs $11. Also, "on last year's plan, this would be a meal that cost 5.96 points, not dollars," Silver continued.
Silver added, "All of this misses the point about the Resolution's purpose and the place that à la carte dining had in it. À la carte was proposed as a potential way to return ACDC to the social gathering space that it once was. No one on this campus can argue that now, with the meal plan change, ACDC is a more effective social space than it was on an à la carte plan."
McBee, who interacts closely with Director of Campus Dining Maureen King, considers the Council Resolution to be unfounded and unhelpful in implementing change. "I do think the Resolution is well-intentioned, I just think that the math behind such a resolution is critical to understanding the issue since cost is probably the No. 1 concern I've heard about the new plan, and that this resolution was backed up by faulty data surrounding that," wrote McBee in a separate e-mailed statement. "The VSA has assured me that they're going to correct the math. There definitely are issues that need to be worked out with the meal plan, surrounding ACDC as a social space, and in creating a plan that better accomodates all kinds of eating patterns."
Silver feels differently about prioritizing meal plan concerns. "The price of the plan and the ACDC's function as a gathering space are two separate issues...Cost is not the No. 1 concern that I have heard. I have heard mostly from athletes, student organization leaders, seniors and other students not on the meal plan that say they miss the social aspect of ACDC," said Silver.
At the VSA Council meeting on Sunday, Sept. 21, Class of 2009 President Luis Hoyos and Terrace Apartments President Riane Harper '09 voiced concerns with the Resolution, arguing that a complete switch back to the à la carte system for next semester would be unrealistic—especially since the VSA had participated in discussions about the new structure.
"Asking the administration to change a meal plan which hasn't even been in place for a full semester is going too far. We need to give [Campus Dining] a broad range of options that could work," said Hoyos at the meeting.
Despite these concerns, the Council Action passed, first with a vote of 19 to 3. Council later moved to return to the discussion, this time passing the resolution by a 21 to 1 vote, with only Hoyos voting against it.
At the meeting, Silver and Kelly were optimistic about the Council Action. "One of our goals this year is to be more actively engaging the student body on these issues, so I can see this as an opportunity to…get their words heard," said Kelly on Sunday.
Kelly and Silver felt that they were reacting to general student outrage over the new plan, and thus making student voices heard through the Resolution. Silver cited the meal plan forum as a key outlet for student voices. "At the meal plan forum, which [McBee] attended, the vast majority of attendees said that our best option moving forward was to bring back à la carte pricing. With that in mind, we decided to include it as a suggestion in the Resolution," said Silver. "Our challenge now is to design a plan that will both give the customer a good value while returning ACDC to the social hub it once was."
Story developing; awaiting comments from the Vassar Student Association leadership.
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