Md. vows to stick with college meal-plan requirements, despite N.J.’s lead

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — While a recent New Jersey bill will abolish any college prepaid meal plans in the state, officials at this university said they don't plan on making similar changes.

The New Jersey bill that bans the state’s colleges and universities from requiring students to purchase meal plans passed in the New Jersey Assembly on Nov. 13. The bill allows students who attend those schools to receive debit cards to charge their meals, ridding of the prepaid point system and the possibility of students having points left over by the end of the semester.

However, leftover points from students’ meal plans at this university will continue to cover extraneous costs for upcoming semesters, said Colleen Wright-Riva, this university’s Dining Services director.

“We don’t roll over points because what’s left over goes into hidden costs for running the program,” Wright-Riva said. “If every student used every point, we would have to increase the base rate.”

The dining halls need the student points to function correctly, Wright-Riva said.

“Across the country, the dining plan is a contract — that’s one thing that they pretty much universally share,” said Bart Hipple, a Dining Services spokesman. “It’s not refundable if not used because Dining Services have to be prepared to serve the students.”

There are about 1,600 Dining Services employees on the payroll, she said, regardless of whether students decide to eat at the dining halls. With the 9,000 students who have dining plans, there are few solutions to the problem, she said, and students would be upset with the system if there were too many or not enough points by the close of the year.

But some students, such as Joel Vazquez, want to know what those hidden costs include.

“Although I do understand the Dining Services’ reasons behind it, I think the reason why I