The meal plan was changed for students living in the Yellow Jacket Apartments and the students living in the residence halls, where each individual living space does not have a kitchen. Those halls include Humbert, Heidepriem, Bordeaux, Thomas and Wenona Cook. 

The former plan for students was 150 meal swipes per semester and students were able to use as many of those meal swipes as they wanted in a week (Sunday through Saturday). Now, The Jacket ten Plan grants students 160 meals and allows them to use up to ten meal swipes a week. Students living in the Yellow Jacket Apartments had their meal plan changed from the Suite Deal, which covered 85 meals per semester to the Hive 5, where they can use only five meal swipes a week and 80 meal swipes per semester. 

Students face the loss of freedom and responsibility of their meal plan now that there are safeguards placed on the plan. The meal plan is now set up so students shouldn’t run out of meals before the semester ends. While some students – the ones who would more than likely run out of meals – see this change as something that keeps them in check, other students view the move as a loss of choice. These students argue that they are adults paying for their meal plan so they should be able to use their meal swipes when and how they choose. One student, who voiced displeasure with the change in the meal plan is Ben Halvorson, a junior at BHSU who has the Jacket 10 plan currently.

“I would not restrict the amount of meal swipes a student can use in a week because some students are gone on certain weeks which then wastes those ten meal swipes,” Halvorson said. “It’s better to have that freedom. Yes, some students are going to use them all at the beginning of the semester and be out at the end of the semester, but that was their choice. I feel like the students are adults. They should be trusted to make those decisions for themselves and the college shouldn’t have to baby us by forcing ten a week. If I want to use one in one week and twenty-one another week I should have that right.”

Halvorson wasn’t the only one who voiced his displeasure in the loss of freedom.

“Generally, I don’t necessarily like that students don’t have the freedom to use the meals when they would like to,” said John Ginther, Director of Residence Life at BHSU. “Overall though, generally I am positive about the changes. I do like that you got to use your meals, I do like that it kind of spurs it a little, I’m not a huge fan of the use it or lose it thing weekly. I know that you use it or lose it at the end of the semester. Cool, but I do like that it prompts students to use their meals when they should.”

The changes seem to have mixed reviews. Both students and faculty are not in favor of the lack of freedom given to students and their ability to use their meal swipes whenever they want. 

“I think I heard rumbles of the meal plans changing the spring semester of this year, so it was sometime between January and May so I had known that they were trying to rework some things,” Ginther said.