A task force charged with evaluating campus meal plans has recommended replacing the mandatory freshman meal plan with a system that gives students the option of paying a $70 fee to have only a declining balance account.
If the plan is approved, beginning next Fall term, all students would be required to purchase a minimum dining plan of $400, only $330 of which would be usable as a declining balance account, said Michael Anderson '96, a member of the task force.
The other $70 would help subsidize Dartmouth Dining Services and make up for income currently raised by the freshman meal plan, which requires first-year students to pay $938 each term for a combination of meal "punches" and declining balance.
The Meal Plan Task Force, created last winter, will present its proposal at a public forum at 7 p.m. tonight in Room 3 of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences. The task force was created by College Vice President and Treasurer Lyn Hutton and Nicole Artzer '94, then Student Assembly president, after the Assembly lobbied DDS to change its policies.
The punch system has been criticized for being inflexible, financially wasteful and harmful to students with eating disorders but DDS has said the system provides revenue necessary to subsidize its program.
DDS Director Pete Napoletano, who serves on the task force, said without the profit from unused punches, DDS would need the $70 fee in order to maintain its current services like late night hours, delivery and a kosher delicatessen.
The proposal would allow students to choose either a $400, $600 or $800 declining balance account or one of three meal plans consisting of a combination of five, 10 or 14 weekly punches and declining balance.
The goals of the new meal plan are to "equally distribute the financial responsibility, address the gender equality issue and improve the refund issue among all students," the report stated. Gender equality refers to the task force's belief that women generally eat less than men and are therefore disadvantaged by the system.
Anderson said the task force felt freshmen were frustrated by the punch system and that some people viewed the current system as subsidizing Full Fare, which is perceived as being mainly for athletes.
Although the task force's goal is to distribute dining costs more evenly during a student's four years, members acknowledged that the equity would not be established immediately because students who have already used the freshman meal plan will end up paying more than those who enter Dartmouth under the new system.
"The folks who have already gone through paying a disproportionate amount [will have to pay again], but it is balanced out by having more options," Anderson said.
DDS Associate Director Tucker Rossiter said the task force discussed the dilemma and is "trying to create gender equity and fairness," he said. "In order to do it, we had to do it for all four classes right away."
He said DDS would lose money if the plan was effective starting with the Class of 1999.
Napoletano agreed the proposal is fair and that the plan's flexibility, which will provide freshmen the with more options than before, was its greatest strength.
"With that flexibility there comes a cost and I think the students are willing to pay a cost for that flexibility," he said.
"When we introduced the current meal plan in 1988, we saw it as an initial step toward a goal of leveling out the costs between the classes," he said. "This next step takes a step closer to that goal."
After tonight's forum, the task force will write a report for Hutton, who will make the final decision on the plan in conjunction with other administrators, Rossiter said.
