After announcing a new required meal plan in December intended in part to foster community, Barnard President Debora Spar said at a forum on Thursday that the plan also has a large financial component.
Barnard students met with the administration on Thursday night to discuss a controversial new proposal that requires all enrolled Barnard students to purchase a meal plan, starting fall, 2010.
Previously, only first-year residents and students living in the Quad were required to be on a meal plan.
Spar fielded questions from students in the new Diana Event Oval and emphasized that the Barnard administration has not yet reached a decision about the meal plan.
When first announced at the end of last fall semester, administrators said the decision was based on a desire to increase student interaction on a sometimes disparate campus. Some students criticized the lack of financial transparency in the announcement.
And on Thursday, Spar outlined a breakdown of the business side of running a small college.
“We lose money on the meal plan by design—we take in money from you and pass all of it to Aramark [the food services provider],” she said. Spar added that because Barnard is such a small college, it is difficult to negotiate deals with the company, which typically caters to much larger collegiate populations. On bigger campuses, costs are spread out across a larger student body, but with a smaller population at Barnard, the dining plan is more of a burden on each individual student, she said.
“We are a very small player in this market,” Spar said.
Spar said the college has stayed with Aramark over the years because they provide a variety of options to students, from halal and kosher items, to vegan and vegetarian choices. Spar also said that the college’s commitment to environmentally sustainable dining service pushes up costs.
Some students expressed frustration that the plan had been sold as a community-builder without any mention of the financial implications.
One Barnard student at the forum said she thought “forcing people to pay to be part of a community is perverse.”
Another, Hannah Goldstein, BC ’13, said she thinks “a lot of the resentment is from the fact that the financial situation wasn’t expressed in the original letter. Students feel like they were led on by the pretense of community.”
“Point well-taken,” Spar responded. “Especially in such tough economic times, we could probably do a much better job of showing you all what the broader landscape looks like in the future,” she said.
Spar said she still stands by her goal to encourage community-building through the meal plan.
But some students insisted that events like the Diana Center Workout are better venues for social interaction than eating food—especially food that many believe is overpriced and of poor quality.
One student at the forum also expressed concerns with overcrowding in the dining facilities, but Spar said that this is something the college will monitor in the months to come.
There is also ongoing confusion surrounding the certainty of the plan.
Despite an e-mail sent to Barnard students on Dec. 9 that announced the plan, Spar maintained at the meeting that nothing was set in stone.
In the December e-mail, Barnard Dean Dorothy Denburg announced that “upper-class students will be required to participate in a limited meal plan, the specifics of which are laid out below.” The breakdown of the meal plan was outlined in the e-mail, though Spar insisted on Thursday that the details of the plan are not finalized.
Members of the Facebook group “Protect Your Right To Be Off the Meal Plan,” launched after the plan was announced, attended the meeting and distributed manifestos that they had sent to the administration and the Student Government Association.
The group, which has attracted 645 Barnard student members as of Feb. 4, criticizes the plan for not yet addressing students with severe food allergies. The members instead advocate a plan that is not mandatory for students with allergies.
Connie Wang, BC’10, said in an interview after the forum she was satisfied with the discussion. “I think Spar handled it well, she managed to keep it light and still mostly provide answers that were very satisfactory,” she said.
elizabeth.scott@columbiaspectator.com
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