UCSD Housing and Dining Services Director Mark Cunningham spoke March 14 at Earl Warren College in a question-and-answer session with students regarding the new “”one-contract, one-rate”” plan.
Guardian
About a dozen students attended, and each brought a variety of concerns.
“”I wanted people to come and just talk to Mark Cunningham directly,”” said Tony Quezada, a Warren resident adviser who helped organize the session.
Under the plan, residence hall fees will be lowered and apartment fees will be raised next year so that a double room will cost $7,108 and a single room will cost $7,308. All students living on campus would also be required to have a meal plan. The new housing fees include the minimum $1,800 meal plan.
The new rates will make housing fees at UCSD the lowest in the UC system, Cunningham said.
Changes in housing fees were made to keep housing costs down, primarily in the residence halls. Over the past few years, the cost of living in the residence halls has increased. Last year, the cost for a double room in a residence hall including the minimum meal plan was $7,410. This year, the same room with the same meal plan costs $7,930.
Housing fees have increased to supplement the larger staff required to maintain the facilities, to fund construction of new housing, and to improve dining services. Over the next 10 years, UCSD will need to build $500 million in new housing to accommodate the university’s projected enrollment growth.
The opening of new residence halls and apartments at the new Eleanor Roosevelt College campus this fall begins that process.
Cunningham said that current and future students who live on campus would be paying for the projects through their housing fees. There is no other source of income to build new housing or pay for staffing, he said.
“”The problem is that we are self-supporting. You are our customer. You are it. There is no state money. There is no federal money,”” Cunningham said. “”What it comes down to is that the customer basically drives the system.””
The goal is to be able to house half of undergraduates and half of graduate students.
Currently, 32 percent of undergraduates and 36 percent of graduate students are housed on campus. These numbers are ranked second and first, respectively, within the UC system.
With increasing enrollment, Cunningham noted that more money is being spent on hiring new staff to accommodate more students.
“”The total income for the department hasn’t changed,”” Cunningham said. “”We’re still at $43 million. We aren’t generating millions of dollars, but we’re spending a lot of money on staffing that we would have just had profit.””
Students in attendance seemed to understand the need to change the rates. They were more concerned with the mandatory $1,800 meal plan for various reasons.
Many students questioned the necessity of having a meal plan while living in the apartments.
Some students thought that increasing the apartment fees in place of the meal plan was a better idea. Cunningham was against the idea on principles of fairness.
“”We did look at that, but that really doesn’t fly for me. It’s just taxing people,”” he said.
Cunningham said that the new plan takes everything into account.
“”Let’s just take the entire program, which is what we did essentially, and mix it all together and say, ‘you’re not going to get anything for living in the apartments other than the opportunity to subsidize residence halls,'”” Cunningham said. “”That’s not fair. It’s just not fair. I know what you’re saying. It’s more expensive, but it’s not fair. And the issue of fairness and equity is really important to our community.””
Some students, such as Quezada, still felt that being able to live without a meal plan in the apartments encourages students to become independent.
“”I don’t think it’s fair for the people in the apartments because in the apartments you have your own kitchen and your own stove, so you’re more independent,”” Quezada said. “”But when you get a meal plan, it takes away from your growing experience.””
Another student asked whether residents could opt out of the meal plan due to special dietary needs.
Cunningham said that there is an appeal process that students must go through to be exempt.
“”There are people right now that are in dining programs that opt out because we can’t meet their needs. They are very rare,”” he said.
Lisa Cho, a Warren freshman, felt her grocery choices would be limited by using her meal plan to buy groceries.
“”You can get so much more, like a better variety of stuff, from Ralphs than you can from Earl’s Place or from Canyon Vista,”” she said. “”And a lot of my roommates like to shop at the Asian markets at Convoy Street, and you can’t get that anywhere on campus.””
Cunningham described a tentative plan to purchase grocery items for students. Students would have a “”menu”” to choose various items from using their meal plan. The items would in turn be purchased in bulk. This service would be targeted toward those living in the apartments.
Acknowledging that prices for food will inevitably be more than at large supermarket chains, Cunningham said he wants to be able to satisfy the needs of those living in the apartments.
“”We can’t be Vons, but maybe have better pricing than certainly Earl’s Place, which I hear tends to be expensive,”” Cunningham said.
Regents Scholars in attendance raised other concerns. Currently, Regents Scholars are guaranteed four years of on-campus housing. Darlene Hunt is a Regents Scholar and a Warren college junior who lives on campus. She and other Regents Scholars living on campus feel that they deserve an exemption from the required meal plan.
Cunningham told her that it would be hard to explain to some students why they had to pay for the meal plan while others were exempted from it.
“”It seems so elitist and maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be,”” Cunningham said. “”It seems inequitable, it seems unfair, and it’s hard to explain to everyone else why you get it and they don’t.””
Another suggestion was to have apartment residents use a $1,800 Triton Plus account in lieu of meal points.
The idea was considered, but money put into Triton Plus would not necessarily come back to H&DS.
“”If you take a dollar to wherever you want to take it — the bookstore or wherever — that doesn’t come back to housing. So it doesn’t help offset any of our costs,”” Cunningham said.
Cunningham stressed throughout the session the intentions of H&DS to best serve the needs of the students.
“”Our position was, rather than come back and tax people, to provide a service to give you something,”” Cunningham said.
He emphasized that H&DS seeks only to break even.
“”It’s not about profit,”” he said.
Some students were still dubious of the plan.
Cho left the session feeling that Cunningham was redundant and was not seriously considering the suggestions of the students.
“”He was very lengthy in all his answers,”” Cho said. “”It seemed a lot of his answers to the questions were repetitions of things he already said. He also doesn’t seem very open to new suggestions about alternatives to the plan that [students in attendance] had.””
Hunt felt more comfort with the plan, although she still held some reservations.
“”It seems like it’s economically feasible, and it’s really one of the only ways to do it,”” she said. “”However, as a Regents Scholar, I think that since we are already living on borrowed time and most people can’t be here for four years anyway, that Regents Scholars should have an exception to this required meal plan.””
Quezada believed there would still be problems with the plan.
“”I think it’s going to cause more chaos for the restaurant workers,”” he said. “”They’re going to end up having more students come in than they can barely handle now.””
Cunningham still encouraged comments from students, and invited e-mails to [email protected].
“”I’m here to listen,”” Cunningham said.
