Commuter students will soon be able to purchase university meal plans and campus residents will be given the option of living in triple rooms at a discounted rate under two proposals approved by the On-Campus Residential and Dining Services Advisory Committee.
The committee backed a plan to allow students who live off-campus to purchase Dining Dollars — meal points accepted at eateries run by Housing and Dining Services — after a group of former students first offered the idea, according to HDS Director Mark P. Cunningham.
Dining Dollars, which will be available for purchase this spring, will be offered to faculty and staff as well.
“The idea came from a group of students led by [Thurgood Marshall College junior senator] Kate Pillon, who were residents last year and brought it to me, so they deserve the credit,” Cunningham stated in an e-mail. “It’s a totally voluntary dining program option, and I don’t really know how it will be received, which is why we are moving to roll it out now instead of waiting until next fall. But the same program will be available next year … and then we’ll evaluate its success.”
Although TritonPlus, an electronic debit account accepted on campus, is available to all students, the new option will allow commuter students to purchase Dining Dollars at a rate 10 percent below their spending power at campus dining facilities. Students also don’t have to pay sales taxes if they use Dining Dollars, according to Pillon.
“The junior senators and I were brainstorming ideas of issues that affect our shared constituency — juniors,” Pillon said. “ A couple of them had noticed that when you pay cash at dining halls, you get taxed, whereas with Dining Dollars, you don’t. And that was the springboard to the idea of offering a much-reduced meal plan for commuters.”
The Housing and Dining committee voted unanimously in favor of implementing the new dining policy, according to John Muir College Residential Dean Pat Danylyshyn-Adams.
“If you buy the minimum, which is $250, you get the buying power of $275,” Danylyshyn-Adams said. “If you buy $500, you get the buying power of $550. And you don’t have to pay tax, so there are advantages because it gives you more buying power.”
The committee also recently approved a new policy for students sharing their campus housing with two other roommates. Next fall, some students will be able to pick the new “rate-saver” option, which will allow three students to share one bedroom at a discounted price.
Each student assigned to a ratesaver room will pay $1,000 less per academic year, according to Danylyshyn-Adams.
The impetus for the change was to allow more students to live on campus and to make on-campus living more affordable, according to Earl Warren College sophomore Tania Sultan, the college’s representative on the committee.
However, some parents and students have not reacted positively to the triple-room option. They have showed concern that a one-person bedroom might be uncomfortable for three students, according to Cunningham.
“Very, very few students and parents consider triples as an ‘opportunity,’” Cunningham stated.
Not all of the six colleges have decided to implement the new housing policy so far, but John Muir College, which will be offering rate-saver rooms, is redesigning the rooms to accommodate three people.
“Furniture is going to be rearranged in such a way that it will be comfortable for the students,” Adams said. “We probably won’t have the big closets anymore. In the Muir College residence hall, we have made the rooms with the best views rate-saver rooms, so students don’t think they are getting the bottom of the barrel.”
Though feedback for the housing changes has been mixed, students, faculty and staff said they support expanded access to Dining Dollars.
“From my perspective, this is a great example of a number of students and staff working together to make a good idea happen in a very short period of time, which can be a real challenge,” Cunningham stated.
Dining Dollars will help commuter students be a part of the campus community, Thurgood Marshall College Dean of Student Affairs Ashanti Houston-Hands said.
“I think it is great that it gives commuter students the same type of plan that on-campus residents have,” said Houston-Hands, who serves on the advisory committee and voted for the change. “It will also save students money. I support it because we want to pull commuter students into our dining facilities.”
Muir senior and commuter Mark Erickson said he also supported the change.
“I think it is a good thing because you don’t always have cash on you and many places don’t take credit cards,” Erickson said.
