On-campus meal plans inconvenience students

As any student who has lived in the dorms can contend, UCLA’s dining services offer a wide range of quality food at locations that are easily accessible from anywhere on the Hill. Go dine at other UC’s and state schools and you can see just how good us Bruins have it.

But for all the great things about UCLA’s food program ““ and I could go on and on ““ UCLA’s system does have one major flaw: the lack of a restaurant or dining hall on the campus itself that accepts meal swipes.

In the course of a given day, UCLA students juggle time between classes, studying, work, internships, research and the many other ambitious activities that define our eclectic student body. Simply put, Bruins are busy people, and finding time to run back to De Neve for a quick bite can often be impossible or feel like a waste of precious time.

It’s necessary to either skip a meal entirely or spend extra money on snacks as one struggles to make it from Bunche to LaKretz in the 10 minutes between classes.

And for students without the Premier meal plan, not only do they spend extra money on lunch, they lose that swipe and the (roughly) $8 it’s worth.

This is not a fair system, not to the parents who are paying thousands of dollars for meals at inconvenient locations and not to the students who live busy enough lives without having to plan their day around getting to the dining halls.

To be fair, our dining services do offer programs that help students use their meal plan when they’re on campus. The sack-lunch program ““ which allows students to pack their own lunch from 7 to 9 a.m. on weekdays ““ certainly enables some students to use their swipes when they otherwise couldn’t, but still leaves those with early classes out of luck.

Similarly, the meal-voucher system is a well-intentioned first start, but offering students a measly $1.55 for lunch and $1.60 for dinner to replace a swipe that’s worth $8 isn’t good enough for a university with the resources of UCLA.

This is not something parents or students should have to accept, and they wouldn’t have to if UCLA simply added an on-campus eatery that accepted swipes.

Of course they would never admit as much, but the cynic in me wonders if UCLA isn’t just a little happy when swipes go unused. When a student pays for a swipe they don’t use, UCLA-housing gets $8 while spending nothing on the swipe’s worth in food.

And although UCLA certainly needs money to offer its student body a world-class education, the student body also deserves to get what they pay for.

Some would argue this is already the case, that each student chooses a meal plan and the parameters that come with it, and that if they cannot make a meal the onus is on the student. It’s arguably not the university’s responsibility to cater to each individual student.

This argument would be equally valid if the only dining hall on the Hill was in Hedrick, yet it’s hard to believe that if that were the case the student body would be satisfied. They would undoubtedly demand that UCLA offer students with more convenient, central locations.

UCLA, like other great universities, should go above and beyond in offering its students every resource they need to succeed. If adding an on-campus eatery would have clear benefits both mentally and physically in keeping busy students well-fed, it’s surprising it hasn’t already happened.

As students cram to prepare for finals, juggling precious time between classes, office hours and review sessions, the 40 minutes spent walking to and from the dining halls can seem like too big a sacrifice. Students shouldn’t have to make the choice between studying and eating, and they wouldn’t have to if UCLA stepped up to the plate and added a dining hall on campus.

E-mail Wright at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].