Meal plan changes on the horizon, student input sought

The Housing and Dining Committee is preparing to embark on a planning process aimed at transforming the dining program into one that students find more satisfying.

Currently, said Manager of Housing and Dining Assignments Sandra Hougland, most complaints she receives are about the inflexibility of Oberlin's meal plan.

To assess what students want from a dining program, Assistant Director of Residential Life Michelle Gross is drawing together a group of students to discuss dining issues. The group will break into smaller focus groups, issue an all-student survey by spring semester, and hopefully have a new dining program ready for implementation by next fall. "We want to get input on the process," Hougland said. "We really want students involved in the process, since it's students we want satisfied."

Student Senate will be responsible for editing a survey about dining programs.

"We're trying to find out what students want," Gross said.

Hougland and Gross said a many students feel that they are paying for 21 meals-a-week. But, they said, in reality students only get billed for 14 meals-a-week. "We need education …" Hougland said. "In a sense it's only a 14-meal plan."

Gross and Hougland both said they don't want to make any assumptions about what student concerns are, but suspected that some of the issues that will arise are the importance of having a partial meal plan, the importance of having as many as five dining halls, and whether off-board status should be granted through a lottery based or seniority based system.

Oberlin Student Cooperative Association issues will also be discussed. Student Life Committee co-chair Chapin Beninghoff, a junior, said whether to allow OSCA students more on-board meals during exam period will probably be looked at.

"Everything is open for debate," Gross said. "We don't want to presume."

Gross and Hougland said that they are also meeting with pre-existing student groups to find out what members think. Student Senate has already been visited, and a visit with the Residential Coordinators is also slated for sometime in the future. One open forum will probably be scheduled.

"Frankly," Beninghoff said, "we have an out of date, antiquated dining program. Housing and Dining is enthusiastic about changing it."

Hougland said that colleges comparable in size to Oberlin that have partial board plans often have only two or three dining sites, as opposed to Oberlin's five. She also said that many of these small colleges do not have a co-op system like Oberlin's.