This is similar to a letter I recently sent food services. I would like to thank them for contacting me to give feedback about dining options.

I will start off by saying that I have never been particularly fond of the campus dining options or being required to purchase a meal plan that is not flexible enough to fit my needs. I have, however, been willing to deal with it until recently. This year, I am living on the west side of campus, and as much as I thought the options were limited on the east side, they are more limited here. There are fewer options at Medary throughout the week, and on weekends, the only meal choices come from Grille Works or Extreme Pita which makes for boring weekend dining.

On Friday, after racing home from work in order to get to the Commons before they closed early at 6:00 pm, I was excited to see that the new inserts in the napkin dispensers touted a new message. The new inserts claim that Aramark has listened to the student body input and put new changes into effect including more weekend dining options and extended weekend hours. The following day, I returned during the supper hour, eager to see what additional options would be available only to find that Extreme Pita was closed, leaving only Grille Works as a dining option, and onion rings and cheese curds were the only prepared options available in the warmer. Needless to say, I went off campus for food.

I can not understand why we are restricted in our required meal plan options (none are small enough to meet my current needs) but not given a variety in our dining options. I sincerely hope the answer is not because of tight budgets because there are numerous areas that Aramark could cut back in order to provide a more satisfactory dining experience on campus, starting with cutting back on promotions and advertising. I see no reason to advertise and promote dining services when there is only one company providing such services.

Overall, I am disappointed that services have been extended at the Union for those students living on the east side of campus, but little or no concern has been shown on the west side. I guess those students whose input Aramark “listened” to all lived near the Union. Hopefully, in the future, Aramark will be able to provide a more convenient and well rounded dining service for ALL students who are required to purchase unreasonable meal plans.

Sara Baldwin

Early Childhood Education