By BRIAN BIGELOW
Guest Writer
Last year, eight to 10 thousand Plus dollars went unspent at the end of the spring semester,.
According to Joe Lachina, senior director of APSU Dining Services, and Cecil Wilson, assistant director of APSU Housing/Residence Life and Dining Services, the unspent Plus dollars that don’t roll over from spring to fall are reabsorbed by Chartwells to cover operating costs, such as equipment, utensils, plates, silverware, payroll and food costs and help to make meal plans more affordable.
APSU meal plans through Chartwells are among the cheapest per meal of any Tennessee college.
Lachina said a student at UT Knoxville can expect to pay, on average, $1.22 more per meal than an APSU student with a comparable meal plan, and students at Tennessee Tech pay as much as $2.39 more per meal than APSU students.
“Students with a meal plan have one less thing to worry about. Parents can feel at ease knowing their student has access to food every day of the week,” Wilson.
“Meal plans help students save money … and all of the time associated with grocery shopping, menu planning, dish washing and the trouble and time of driving to the store,” Wilson said.
University policy requires that all residential students, except those living in Emerald Hills and Two Rivers apartments, have meal plans.
This is done for several reasons; one of the foremost is to control cost.
“Requiring meal plans of our residential students allows for a greater selection of dining options,” Wilson said.
“These meal plans help pay the operating costs associated with maintaining a convenience store, a Chick-fil-A, bringing in a Papa John’s and providing all of the other dining venues on campus.”
Every semester, roughly 1,200 students buy meal plans, meaning on average students who have meal plans spend all but eight of their Plus dollars by the end of the spring semester.
“Generally, week per week, 80 percent of the meal plan holders use their meals,” Lachina said.
“The other 20 percent do not use all of there meals. In other words, if they had a 14 meal plan they used 11 or 12 meals that week,” Lachina said.
Chartwells’ contract with APSU expires at the end of the Spring 2011 semester. At that time, APSU will accept bids for new dining contracts. The bids will be reviewed by an approval committee headed by Wilson and will consist of students and administrators.
“The bidding is open to everyone. Chartwells has to reapply just like everyone else,” Wilson said
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