It is nice to be a senior, outside the terror of entering the real world. Having a fifth Starbucks branch added to the Boston University campus is upsetting, but I will be elsewhere.
BU is missing the mark on how college dining can best serve the students. It is slowly forcing out independent operations, lessening service in its own refectories and raising prices and expecting nobody to notice. Just look at the meal plans: Rhett’s, kosher dining and Convenience Points.
Consider the 330 meal plan, which costs $3,850, including $500 in Dining Points. Subtract the points, since they resemble cash (except they are not refundable if unused). Divide the remaining $3,350 by 350 (including 20 guest meals), and your cost per dining hall meal is $9.57! Try the 250 plan – $10.59 per meal! This number only applies if you use every meal. Otherwise, each meal effectively costs more. By comparison, students without plans, living off campus or in apartment housing pay $5.30, $7.05 or $9.10 for each respective meal period using Convenience Points. Surprisingly, the optional apartment plan works out to $7.27 for each of the 96 meals it includes, but if you eat mostly breakfast and lunch on campus, you still lose by paying upfront.
Why is it more expensive (and mandatory) to buy all your meals up front, and not just the ones you actually eat? Is this all to blame on cutlery borrowing? How about superfluous renovations like the platform raising half of the Warren Towers dining annex by a foot?
Meals on campus should be charged when you eat them, and if students choose, a block of meals could be purchasable at reduced price. This seems more logical than being forced to pay more in advance. If 10 to 15 percent of students decided to pay next semester’s bill less the meal plan, it might cause enough disruption to campus operations that the issue would be addressed. As a note, plans go up in price by $140 next year — taxation without mastication.
Rhett’s is an interesting addition to our campus. Not so long ago we used to care who was in our Student Union — or at least know. Jon Marker was president. He shaved his head for charity, brought Barack Obama to Agganis and tried to bring a 24-hour diner to Central Campus, perhaps in the home of the now-razed Burger King. The university listened! Rhett’s looks like a diner, serves decent burgers (but not much else) and had a few later hours than the rest of the food court until they all reduced operation a few months ago. Mission accomplished? I wrote most of this perspective over the weekend. It is coincidental that Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services Craig Hill also mentioned Jon Marker in his letter (“Dining Services listens to students,” April 2, p. 6).
A quote from Friday’s article was also quite distressing. A student suggested having Taco Bell on campus was an unhealthy temptation. Have you taken “Rhett’s Challenge?” $18.99 buys a triple burger, fries, root beer and an eight-scoop sundae. Not feeling so hungry? They also sell T-shirts in medium and one-size-fits-cholesterol.
Kosher dining could be the best-kept secret on campus, but it is not. Limited service hours, lack of selection and dearth of publicity keep it patronized mostly by those who visit the Hillel House regularly. Few on campus know it is there or that it is open to everyone. The meat, in accordance with tradition, is slaughtered humanely. On alternate days, fare is entirely vegetarian and fish, prepared in a separate kitchen from the meat. People who worry about meat contamination in other dining halls should know this exists.
Removing the point surcharge would make it as simple and compelling to eat there as any other dining hall. The increased volume would allow the selection and service hours to increase.
The Convenience Points concern truly baffles me. Of course, the new Starbucks will accept Convenience Points, but BU could let any establishment, even the old Taco Bell, if it liked. Just this year Papa John’s got the nod, yet its facilities are not in BU buildings or central to campus. The model should be Northeastern University, whose Husky Card is accepted at a variety of off-campus dining locations. Boston College’s Eagle Card is even accepted by some taxis.
For all BU’s miserly expertise, missing this opportunity surprises me. BU could open its system to external vendors, food and otherwise, take a cut just as real credit/debit cards do and even get to tell our parents it is a “measure increasing student safety,” reducing the amount of cash we carry on our person and likelihood of being mugged, especially when we venture off campus.
Never forget, it is not what you ate or how much you paid that you will remember when you become a senior like me – only the people with whom you enjoyed your meals. I will not hold a grudge over Taco Bell or boycott its replacement. If a pretty girl wants to meet me at Starbucks, we will most assuredly meet there. It just might take me five tries to find her.
Better yet, shoot me an email. I’ll invite you over and we can make quesadillas together for old time’s sake. My treat.
P.S. To Taco Bell, and all the friendly people who worked there: Thanks for five great years. I wish you the best.