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The Rice Thresher
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by Mark Berenson for the Thresher
Ditman said he wants to learn how students would prefer F&H to spend its budget. "Any change in the meal plan is shifting resources," Ditman said. "We are fully deployed at this time." One idea is to have hot breakfast served daily at only four of the colleges, with continental breakfast available everywhere. Ditman said this plan would require less staffing and therefore less money. He said he was unsure of the specifics, but he assured students that if this plan were adopted, the money would be used for something students want more, such as expanding the hours of service for other meals. Wiess College President Josh Katz brought up the idea of using the money saved to make a late-night meal at Sammy's count as a meal plan meal. Ditman said he will calculate the possible savings from the modified breakfast. He will share his findings with Baker College President Melissa Boddie, who will report them to the SA. Ditman also said that for any change to take place, it would need to be approved by the college masters and presidents. In a straw poll taken at the SA meeting, a majority of those present supported the idea of a more limited breakfast if there were tangible benefits. When asked why the meal plan costs so much, Ditman explained that it is expensive to run a kitchen in each of the eight colleges. Two-thirds of the food budget goes to overhead, including salaries and facilities. Ditman said he believes the superkitchens, which will be built in the next two years, will help solve the problem of high overhead costs. He reminded students that College Food Service is not run for profit. In addition, Ditman pointed out that though Rice students consider the meal plan expensive, students pay more at other comparable universities. The relatively low meal plan fee follows Rice's philosophy to be affordable but limits what College Food Service can do. "We would love to be a five-star restaurant, but we can't," Ditman said. Students suggested making meals transferable between students and making it possible to roll meals over from week to week. Ditman said doing either of these things would make the meal plan cost 15 to 20 percent more because the current prices reflect an expectation that students will not eat all the meals they've bought. However, Ditman said if there is perceived demand, next year F&H could institute an alternative to the current meal plan, which would allow rolling over of meals and the ability to pay for two meals at one meal time. Ditman added that he would even consider offering this plan for the springs semester if there is enough demand to support it. Students also suggested that unused meals roll over into Tetra points. Ditman said that if students did not want the price of the meal plan to increase, they would only get one-third of the Tetra points back for uneaten meals, something he said he didn't think students would like. The reasons for this are the same as the reasons that prohibit meals from rolling over to the next week, he said. Ditman said it would be possible to switch back to last year's meal plan, in which after a base fee was paid at the semester's beginning items were purchased a la carte. Ditman said this would eliminate the benefits that this year's meal plan has brought, namely shorter lines and fresher food at meals. When asked why all on-campus students must buy a meal plan, Ditman said that by purchasing a meal plan, they are paying to support the idea of having a kitchen at each college. "We value the college system, but we can't offer the environment at no cost. This cost is reflected in meal plans," he said. Ditman also told the SA that two more of the Culligan purified water dispensers like the one in the outer commons of Baker College will be installed in the next two to three weeks. The dispensers will go in Jones and Lovett Colleges, F&H Business Manager Frank Rodriguez said.
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