Students continue advocating for meal swipe donation program, campus leaders respond
Students protest the $25 fee for allowing someone else to use their meal swipes on Nov. 24 outside of RFoC in the Towers Residential Community.
Central Michigan University students have taken to social media, Change.org and a CMU dining hall to protest a $25 fee for allowing another student to use their CentralCard to get into dining halls and to advocate for a meal swipe donation program.
On Sunday, Nov. 24 the Central Michigan Student Labor Union held a protest outside of the Real Food on Campus (RFoC) dining hall in the Towers Residence Community.
“We think you should be able to use your meals that you paid for the way that you want to,” said Lake Orion senior Duncan Tierney and student labor union member. “We don’t think there should be a $25 charge, there are much easier ways to make sure IDs don’t get stolen.”
The student protesters chanted "they're our meals," and said they should be able to use the meals they pay for however they want. Many students who passed the protestors on their way into the dining hall mentioned that they agreed and had already signed an online petition.
A Change.org petition titled, "CMU students feeding CMU students – creating a meal swipe donation program!" was created by senior Alexandra Garay after multiple students tweeted about a CMU policy, which doesn’t allow students to share their meal plans with other students. The petition has received over 5,555 signatures and is more than halfway to the goal of 7,500.
CMU's policy says any student who uses another student’s CentralCard could be charged $25 and get their card confiscated. The policy has been in place for more than 20 years and is listed on the CentralCard website as well as the Campus Dining website.
“My main issue with the policy is, not only do they charge a $25 fine, which is a lot for a college student, but if they confiscate your card, most times the card office is closed,” said Muskegon junior Teasha Griffin. “Even if you wanted to go get another card, you could be prevented from swiping into elevators or swiping into the staircases. So not only are they preventing students from having their IDs, they are preventing students from getting back to where they live."
On his blog “Presidential Perspectives,” President Bob Davies released a statement about the issue in a post titled, “Food for Thought” on Nov. 22, which discussed the petition and student concerns.
“Many of you are aware of a petition circulating online asking CMU to begin a food swipe donation program,” Davies wrote. “I’m proud to say that, even before the petition appeared, members of the committee had already begun working to develop such a program.”
Director of CMU’s Residence Housing Association, Mary St. John, released a statement addressed to CMU students on Nov. 21.
“In September of this year, I reached out to campus partners, including Campus Dining, about finding more ways to support or students regarding food insecurity,” St. John said. “I reached out to the coordinator for Swipe Out Hunger and have been in contact with her the few months.”
When St. John pitched the meal swipe program idea, Campus Dining and Auxilary Services didn’t think it would be feasible to start the lengthy process mid-year. Due to the need for a more immediate solution, they compromised and formed the idea of $1 meals.
“Students should not have to resort to using their friend’s IDs to get something to eat; which is why we have been planning the $1 meal initiative and will be relooking into the Swipe Out Hunger program,” St. John wrote.
Swipe Out Hunger is a nonprofit started by University California Los Angeles students in 2010 to address the issue of hunger among college students. The movement is now enacted at over 90 colleges nationwide and has helped serve over 1.7 million meals.
“I think RHA does a great job of advocating for students a lot and I’m not trying to go against them,” Tierney said. “If they have an end to this fee that works, I’m all for it, but their official statement didn’t really address the issue, it sideswiped it entirely.”
The CMU Student Labor Union meets every Monday at 9 p.m. in the Down Under Food Court in Bovee University Center. At its Nov. 25 meeting, members will be making plans to further protest the issue.
“I think we need to continue to spread awareness in whatever way we think will spread it the farthest and most accurately,” Tierney said. “It’s great that we have been able to make some strides toward ending food insecurity on campus, but I don’t think that means we stop.”
