At Wednesday’s Student Government Association meeting, the assistant director of meal plans announced changes to student meal plans which will take effect this fall.
Lower-cost meal plans and “a la carte” options will be provided in response to several surveys and focus groups conducted by Culinary and Hospitality Services — better known as dining services. Other changes include themed events, meal exchanges in retail locations and extended hours of operation, according to Shane Collins, the assistant director of meal plans.
Kennesaw State University is the only public university in Georgia that requires non-residential students to purchase meal plans. Many universities within the system offer residential plans with meals that average between $4.84 and $8.25. KSU’s current plans are about $9.00 per meal, according to the KSU dining presentation.
“We wanted to align KSU meal plans more closely with other University System of Georgia schools,” Collins said at the meeting. “We want to assure that quality and variety of KSU dining is not affected as well.”
KSU officials announced last fall that non-residential student meal plans will no longer be mandatory beginning with the 2017-2018 school year.
“We want to offer students who live off campus the flexibility of creating their own meal plan,” Collins said.
Residential students will now have the option of choosing between three different plans, depending on their credit hours.
Students with 59 or less earned credit hours — traditional freshmen and sophomores — can select between three plans for the price of $1890:
- the 5-Day Unlimited Plan includes 270 dining dollars and 240 or more swipes per semester.
- the Block 220 plan includes 405 dining dollars and 220 swipes per semester.
- the Block 160 plan includes 810 dining dollars and 160 swipes per semester.
Students with 60 or more earned credit hours — juniors and seniors — can select between three plans that each cost $489:
- the Block 50 plan includes 50 dining dollars and 50 swipes per semester.
- the Block 20 plan includes 300 dining dollars and 20 swipes per semester.
- the 505 Dining Dollars plan does not include any swipes.
Extended hours of operation have already been put into effect on the Marietta campus following a late-night dining survey in which 76 percent of students wanting longer nights at The Commons and Stingers. Stingers is open until 9 p.m., an hour later, Monday through Thursday. The Subway and Starbucks in the J Building are now kept open until midnight Monday through Thursday.
One student who attended the meeting, junior human services major Claire Cooley, was a fan of the changes.
“I like that you don’t have to have a huge commitment and you can pick whatever you want with the new plans,” Cooley said.
Full survey results and meal plan updates will be available on the KSU dining website as early as Feb. 6.
Other items on the agenda
Besides the meal plan changes, the SGA meeting also covered an upcoming leadership summit, Valentine’s Day cookie cakes available to students, and a proposed resolution to improve and create more student housing.
The second annual leadership summit with the theme “Breaking Barriers” will be held in the Social Science building on the Kennesaw campus March 4 and is now open for registration. The event will include guest speakers and focus on exploring individual identities. For more information or to register, students can go to the website.
SGA meetings are open to the public and held Wednesdays at 7 p.m., biweekly in the student centers of alternating campuses. The next meeting will be held Feb. 8 on the Kennesaw campus.
