Meal plan roll over policies

Cristine Meza, Campus Life - By Cristine Meza on Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 02:54

With students back on campus, new and familiar faces continuously fill the Campus Inn and The Spot. This progression into a new semester draws attention to several misconceptions pertaining to flex points and meal plans. For the most part, it has been uncertain whether or not flex points roll over from the fall semester into spring. In addition, many students are frustrated with the fact that C.I. meals do not roll over weekly.

For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, flex points can be purchased and credited to one’s Whittier College ID card. Typically, more of these dollar-valued points are received than what is paid for, and they can be conveniently used at the Spot and towards extra meals at the C.I.

Director of Dining Services for Bon Appétit Management Company here at Whittier College, Jessica Reeve, confirms that flex points do roll over within the academic year. Basically, they can roll from fall semester into spring, but not from one school year to another. “99 percent of flex points get completely used up,” Reeve said. “It is not as hard to use up $200 worth of flex points” as opposed to an entire week’s worth of meals at the Campus Inn. Consequently, this clarification arises a popular concern for the inability to roll over unused C.I. meals into subsequent weeks. Reeve also said that the issue of rolling meals and flex points “are two completely different concepts.”

The reason that meal plans do not roll over from week to week is in Whittier College’s agreement with Bon Appétit’s concept of a “missed meal factor.” Basically, during the calculation of meal plan prices, it is anticipated that the majority of students will not eat their maximum set of meals every week. Thus, students are not paying the full price for their meal plan. If meals could roll over, it would interrupt this estimation process used to determine meal prices. In addition, if it were certain that every student with a meal plan would max out his or her weekly meals, the cost of the meals plans would rise.

Regardless, some students believe that they are generally paying too much for their meals. Reeve reveals that a portion of the money goes to Bon Appétit, while some of it goes to Whittier College’s maintenance of the new Cafeteria. “You are not only paying for your food, but for the convenience and experience as well,” Reeve said. Ultimately, there is still much to know about the ways in which the C.I. and The Spot run. However, if students are not introduced to these concepts, complaints and concerns may continue to linger.