I have long thought that we were being extremely overcharged for meal plans at SMU. I mean, over $2000 a semester is a hefty fee just to eat three meals a day and maybe a bowl of cereal somewhere in between. A semester’s worth of grocery bills for one person living in an apartment doesn’t even come close to that.
Out of general curiosity, I started doing some research. According to what I have found on local universities’ Web sites, SMU meal plans are more expensive than any other university in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And not just a little more expensive… hundreds of dollars more expensive.
The recommended meal plan at SMU costs $2215 a semester and provides unlimited meals in the cafeteria, 50 Flex Dollars, and five guest passes. This is the cheapest meal plan available to most students living on campus. The next most expensive meal plan at another school I could find information for was at the University of Dallas, and their most expensive plan costs just over $1800.
In my research, I found that the most comparable meal plan in the area was the University of Texas at Dallas’s most expensive meal plan, which costs only $1518 a semester. This plan, like SMU’s recommended plan, provides unlimited meals, provides only two guest passes, but provides 150 dollars worth of their equivalent of “Flex.”
If UTD can feed their students so cheaply, why can’t we manage to do the same? I thought it might be because of the hours, but the hours aren’t all that different at UTD than they are here. UTD also seems to have the same number of dining options and, unlike SMU, they even have themed weeks complete with international style food options and festivities. UTD also has substantially more dining options in terms of fast food and coffee stops. So, does being open only about five more hours a week justify paying over $600 more? I would argue not.
Aramark, the company that manages the foods service at SMU, also manages the food services at the University of Texas at Arlington and at the University of Dallas. Both of these schools’ most expensive plans are hundreds of dollars less expensive than our recommended plan. Why should we pay so much money here, when kids at other schools are getting literally the same food for so much less?
I know there are probably factors that influence the cost that are either not apparent or available to me, but I feel like having the most expensive meal plan in the Dallas area by over 400 dollars cannot only be influenced by those things. We are clearly being over charged for our meal plans, and there is nothing we can do about it.
I don’t know about you, but I have a difficult time just keeping up with the expenses of fees and tuition much less the dining plan. Private schools are more expensive, that’s a known fact. But should the food be more expensive as well? We are getting a fantastic education here, that is for sure. But we are not getting fantastic food, so why should we pay such outrageous prices?
I e-mailed and called every person who is named as any sort of director on our cafeteria’s Web site regarding this issue, and only one returned my call. Unfortunately, it was when I was in class and he never responded to my follow up messages. I feel like this lack of communication is funny, because I send a brief two-line e-mail to the director of food services at UTD just requesting some figures, and he not only called me almost immediately, but he had pulled research comparing our cafeterias to give me a prepared and helpful opinion.
While I feel like it is very convenient to eat on campus, and while I enjoy the freshly baked cookies and the tasty corn and black bean salsa immensely, I do not feel like convenience and tasty snackage justifies paying over $2000 a semester in food costs.
If there is some specific reason why our cafeteria is so much more expensive that other area schools, I would like to know. Unfortunately, there seems to be no surface reason for the huge difference in cost.
Jessica Huseman is a sophomore political science and journalism double major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
