For ASU students, living in the dorms could entail paying another required fee.
While still in the preliminary stages, University administrators from Campus Dining, the Memorial Union and Student Affairs are discussing having an "inclusive meal plan for all students in residence halls," said Sally Ramage, associate dean of Student Development at the MU.
Currently, students living in residence halls are offered the option to buy a campus meal plan. If an inclusive meal plan is put into place, it would offer several choices to students but would automatically be included in the overall charge to live in residence halls.
"If such a plan is put in place -- and we don't know if it will -- it would help develop community, provide dining hall hours students want, generate revenue to support redesigning facilities, and students wouldn't have to pay sales tax," Ramage said.
Considerations for required meal plans began after Maryland-based firm Porter Consulting conducted extensive interviews and surveys of ASU students in fall 2003 and spring 2004.
They told ASU officials that changes needed to be made to Campus Dining and recommended inclusive meal plans.
ASU is in year seven of a ten-year contract with the food service provider Sodex-Ho, Ramage said.
"Food service requires a lot of capital, so for that investment to be worth it, we have to make sure we are meeting the needs of students."
Ramage said the committee is currently looking at studies done on other college campuses and weighing the benefits of a package deal. Of ASU's competitors in the Pac-10, Big Ten and Big 12, only ASU, UA and Ohio State do not have inclusive meal plans, Ramage said.
Mike Matthies, manager of facilities and contracts at the MU, said students would still have a choice of meal plans and that having a meal plan would not be an absolute obligation.
"We have waived meal plans for students for religious or dietary reasons in the past," he said.
If such a program were put in place, the price students would pay for their meal plans would depend on what residence hall they live in. For example, students living in halls with kitchenettes, such as Cholla Apartments, would have a smaller plan, while halls that house primarily freshman and have dining halls nearby, such as Manzanita and Palo Verde Main, would have larger plans.
As the talks are still in the preliminary stages, no prices for meal plans have been nailed down yet. When such plans could go into place is not known either, Ramage said.
Cholla resident assistant and computer science senior Tanjot Bhatia said he thought a mandatory meal plan wasn't a good idea.
Bhatia said he doesn't currently have a meal plan and has never gotten one before because they were too expensive.
"It's a good idea to have meal plans available, but imposing them on people is a risky idea," he said. "People's parents buy them, but how much are they actually going to use it?"
Reach the reporter at annemarie.moody@asu.edu.
