COLUMN: Students are paying the price for CMU's dining hall responsibilities
Two weeks ago the Towers dining hall, The Eatery, temporarily closed due to labor shortages. Since I live in Carey Hall, I didn't have access to food unless I walked to another residential restaurant or spent extra money off campus.
My first thought was, at least it's only for one weekend. Then, they temporarily closed it the next weekend. Both weekends I didn't use my meal plan at all.
Call me lazy for not wanting to walk 10 minutes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but when I am paying for the convenience of having food available in my dining hall, it is unacceptable.
To make matters worse, I am forced to spend even more money on surrounding restaurants because the college isn't prepared to feed students.
When I received the Oct. 13 email from Central Michigan University Campus Dining stating The Eatery would be closed each weekend and Social House at Merrill would only be open 6-11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, I was furious.
But no need for me to worry, CMU has given me, and all other students, an extra $100 Flex Dollars. At first glance, this seems like a step in the right direction, but in reality these changes benefit the university.
Changing the dining hall hours means Campus Dining spends less on employee wages and food supplies. In addition, giving students only $100 in Flex Dollars towards meal plans that cost over $2,000, is a huge way of saving money that isn't theirs to begin with.
Our campus is facing a major labor shortage so it is understandable that these events were to occur. Nevertheless, in comparison to a $2,000 meal plan, a refund of $100 that can only be used on campus is not enough.
There is no telling how long this will continue and there has been no announcement of a future plan to combat this.
It is the university's responsibility to provide food that won’t make students sick and making it available.
I understand the university is facing challenges, but this issue is continuous and hasn’t shown any hope for being resolved any time soon.
Apart from myself, students are growing more upset with how their money is being spent. CMU should allow us to cancel our meal plans instead of wasting our money since we don't use all of our swipes.
The ability to cancel meal plans may be seen as an expensive loss to the campus, but for college students, not having access to food that they paid for, is an even greater loss.
Before the dining hall was announced to be closed on weekends, I probably used my meal plan seven times a week at most. This is because of how the dining hall schedules ran with my own, in addition to the unappealing food served. So regardless, I am giving the campus money for something that I rarely eat.
With the "Central 12" meal plan, I pay approximately $10.21 per meal, if I were to eat in the dining halls 192 times during the semester. However, I do not use all of my meal swipes. As an alternative, students should be able to utilize the money spent on meal plans at the franchises and other eateries on campus.
The only explanation that comes to mind in regards to all of this is that the campus can’t refund students their own money because they need it to cover for the challenges they’re facing. That is not their money to withhold and it is not our responsibility to amend this issue, but theirs alone.
