The Rocket

Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Joey Kennedy Business major Addison Legere visits Boozel Dining Hall where worker Judi Bell serves him his food. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Joey Kennedy Boozel Dining Hall employee Jean Bartley rolls wraps, one of the many varieties of foods offered in the dining halls on the SRU campus. [Click to enlarge]

Slippery Rock students are not satisfied with meal plan options on campus.

Rebecca Carnahan, a 21-year-old community health major, thinks that the cost of food on campus is way too high.

"If the food is not good, then why should the cost of the meal be as much as it is," Carnahan said, "if you could go to Eat 'n' Park for less?"

Meal plans range from the White Membership, which costs $617 and $50 in flex to the Premier Gold Membership, which costs $1,294 and offers 15 meals per week and $150 flex.

Meal plans cost a lot because the dining halls and Rocky's Grille are auxiliaries, said Debra Pincek, assistant to the vice president of Student Life Administration.

Pincek explained this means the campus does not fund the dining halls: The money brought in by the dining halls covers all expenses, from the machinery to the food and cost of paying employees.

"We are trying to provide a quality program at a reasonable cost," said Pincek.

That is one reason why students can only use meal plans at certain times of the day and why a student can only use one meal in that particular time period.

Jesse Savidge, a 21-year-old elementary education major, doesn't think the meals come at a reasonable cost.

"I think the meal plans are way too expensive and the majority of the time the food we get is not worth how much we are paying for it," he said.

Students also have the option to use flex dollars, which comes with the standard meal plan. Flex is a supplement that students are given so they may still eat on campus if they run out of meals at the end of the week, Pincek said.

"I think it is stupid that we only get $100 of flex," Carnahan said. "Students use it up in the first week of classes because no one likes to eat the food at the 'fluh or Boozel, so they resort to flex dollars to get the food they want."

Flex can be used at the coffee shop or the marketplace located in Weisenfluh Dining Hall or if the price of food purchased at Rocky's went over the amount of a price of the average meal.

CaLissa Cummings, a 21-year-old elementary education major, thinks that the flex dollars are a rip off.

"Most people want to eat at Rocky's because the food at the 'fluh and Boozel is horrible," Cummings said.

"So why can't the food purchased at Rocky's be as much as it is for a meal at the 'fluh or Boozel?"

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