Did anyone think to ask the students if this is a good idea?

Good grief. Is the College TRYING to kill the sense of community among students or is the College just that oblivious?

Bad enough that FoCo’s seating has been closed for so long, Balkanizing the student body and sending more people to the Hop and Collis, and otherwise having those getting FoCo food splitting between getting it to go, the Tindle lounge, the Green, and other spaces. The College likes to pretend there are non-Greek dominated social spaces, and yet it allows the most important central social space, Food Court’s seating, to be closed for this lengthy period.

But even assuming that there was a driving need to renovate the seating other than, “Gee, an alum is giving us money, we might as well do it,” it is patently stupid to change the system so you have to pay for a meal to sit in the dining hall.

Newlove is thinking of the Class of 1953 Commons solely as a dining area and not as the primary social spot on campus. Students don’t just go to the Class of ‘53 Commons to eat, they also go to hang out with friends, hang out in groups, and the like.

A common conversation, variations of which are repeated countless times throughout the normal course of a Dartmouth day, of “Hey Jill, I’m going to FoCo-want to come with me?” “Well, I’ve already eaten, but I’ll sit with you” is apparently an endangered species. It’s one thing to hang out with friends while they eat. It’s another thing to pay for the privilege.

C'mon, Dartmouth. This should be a no-brainer.

Why can’t they just keep an a la carte format? If the College is worried that people go negative too quickly, then they should stop inflating prices so much. There’s really no other benefit to the plan (I don’t consider being able to eat all you want at one sitting a benefit…) and there’s lots of drawbacks. For example, requiring freshmen to get a 20 meal plan reflects a $250 increase in the dining plan they receive from this year. Second of all, it encourages the Freshman 15.. because who wants to pay $8 a meal ($1658/10 weeks/20 meals) if they’re not getting a decent amount of food. Second of all, people go to the Commons not only to eat, but to socialize as well. How many times have you gone to lunch or dinner and not gotten much, but went because your friends were there? No, you don’t want a to-go meal.. because you’re still not hungry and not going to your room soon. Also, Collis and the Hop are both not suited for a pay-per-meal plan. I hope that they still keep all their options and remain a la carte. Only about half of the people at the Hop grab a full meal.. and the number must be less at Collis. If they’re going to change this system around, they better let us opt out of DDS. This is just getting ridiculous.

How can a renovation of a social space cost $1,000,000? You can buy a mansion in Southern California for a million dollars. More than that, how does the preservation of a few murals cost a million dollars?

I really don’t like this. Sometimes I just want a sandwich from foco…if that costs me 9 bucks I’m going to flip. And sometimes I’m not hungry but still want to go eat with my friends and just drink a coke. Not cool, dds. Not cool.

Another dumb idea. Is there anyone in charge?

@13: I was recently quoted 60,000 dollars for a bathroom renovation at my fraternity! Building costs in Hanover are insane.

This is a terrible idea. It’s unfair to students who don’t eat very much food. I do not want to have pay for the food for all the athletes on this campus that eat twice as much as I do. This plan will also encourage waste as students will just pile food on to their plates that they might not consume because they do not have to pay for it. The whole system of DDS is already ridiculous enough. The fact that we are required to buy lower quality food on-campus when many of the off-campus options are cheaper just because we have to put a certain amount in our account that we must use up is ridiculous. This new plan means we have to spend even more money on equally low quality food. What will end up happening is that the bill of a few gluttonous students will fall on the rest of campus but students won’t opt out because DDS is the easiest way to ensure that parents, rather than consumers, are the ones footing the bill. so many market failures!

this is ridiculous. This plan looks to help part of the community (athletes) while forgetting everyone else.

If one purpose of these “alternative spaces” is to provide students with a place to go that is not a fraternity basement, let me ask you this, administration… Where do you think (broke, college) students will choose to go, the place where they have to pay (even just to sit!) or the place where they don’t (even if they drink a ton of the beer)? You’re just WIDENING THE GULF of inequality of social space.

if you really want to change this, you need to either a.) blitz the people responsible for this change with your concerns b.) express them through comment cards they DO listen to feedback IF student step up and say something outside of the D comment boards

As a student who has been on full financial aid and who knows a great deal of students on financial aid, I have yet to meet someone who has had to skip meals because of lack of money. On the contrary, many always seem to have money left over. For example, we are almost at the end of this term and I have over $500 left, and I’m on the mini-green plan and eat 3 meals per day. Therefore, I just can’t buy the whole argument of making these changes to accomodate students who are on financial aid.

On another note, did anyone stop and think about health considerations and the amount of food waste that will be produced? The college has already made the active decision to get rid of supplying trays during Sunday brunch at Homeplate because of the amount of food students were getting. A lot of times, students' visual appetites are bigger than their stomachs, so students will get a lot of food to fill up their trey and then realize that they have gotten full faster than they thought. This then leaves the student in a dilema—eat the food or throw away everything I didn’t eat? So was the college’s nutritionist consulted before making this decision?

Overall, I think these changes are being made to accomodate for the athletes on this campus, who from my 3 and ½ years of experience here, tend to run out of money the fastest. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jim Kim was the main person behind this decisoin. He seems to mainly support athletes since they are one of the biggest sources of income for the college due to the support they recieve from alumni.

Just another chance for DDS to take advantage of Dartmouth students' wallets. Newlove seems to think, incorrectly, that the majority of Dartmouth students go negative halfway through the term. Those students should pay more, but this new plan should not be forced on everyone.

This is such a terrible idea in every way possible. This plan basically discriminates all of the people who don’t necessarily eat enough to justify paying for an entire meal – for instance, if I just want to get a salad for lunch/dinner and don’t want to waste money and pay per meal, then I can’t eat with my friends in foco?? Also, will I have to pay for an entire meal if I simply just want to get froyo from foco??

And this plan may help those who go over on DBA, but what about all of those of us who every term have hundreds of dollars left even on the mini green plan?? Now freshmen will be required to get a plan that is even more expensive, and many people will just waste more money. Not cool.

@you should – don’t worry – Kim’s advisers read all these comments.

Where was the student representation in making this decision? The one thing I liked about Dartmouth was the freedom to go to the dining halls and pay for what you want. This decision to go buffet-style will only ruin the quality of the food, increase waste, encourage unhealthy eating habits, and ruin the social atmosphere that the dining hall provides. This is ridiculous, and I’m pretty sure Jim Kim is at least partially to blame.

This plan is going to destroy my eating habits. I’m not the type of person to eat big meals. In fact, I tend to run in and out of dining facilities all day. Maybe I will buy a yogurt, leave, and return for a cookie 2 hours later. I’m not going to spend $8 every time I want a $2 snack (which is around 6 times a day). In order for me to maintain my eating habits AND avoid going over the 20 meals a week limit, I would have to LIVE inside the dining area.

It’s too bad that the $300 DBA surplus that I have at the end of every term can’t be rolled into this new dinning plan, because I think I’m going to need it.

This is actually a horrible idea. I mean, they have to change the current dining plan, because it’s awful too. I seriously don’t understand why DDS thinks this is a good idea, and why they didn’t put this up to a vote to the student body!! I’ve asked DDS people why they got rid of the 600 dollar meal plan before (and whether or not we could get it back) and they said that they needed the students' permission. Where’s our permission for this!?

Also, talk about food waste. Buffets are not only UNHEALTHY, but they’re also a money hole. Why should I HAVE to pay 8 dollars for a meal if all I want is actually worth 4 dollars? Especially considering that the food that DDS makes is unhealthy in general. If the college really wants to save money they would get rid of Buffet style eating in favor of make-on-the-spot type stuff like what we have right now.

Also, I find it absolutely insane that all freshman will be required to have 1600 dollars on their meal plans. That’s more money that I’ve EVER spent in a term on money. What do people get if they live off campus?!

I mean, the current meal plan is awful, but this is even worse. Give people more options (from really low to really high) in the current DBA plan!

Also, what does this mean: “Plans with fewer meals will include a larger initial DBA, according to Newlove.” Shouldn’t it include a SMALLER initial DBA?

This is really too bad. I chose Dartmouth for a thousand little reasons, of which the old meal plan was one. My friend, a 14, has had some of her best times at Dartmouth while hanging out in the dining hall, and I was really looking forward to having experiences like those in her stories. I don’t think the to-go option will be able to replace that.

For this plan to be successful, which I don’t believe it will be, there needs to be much more transparency in the process. It was not clear in the article (no fault to the writer) how this plan is going to go down — are we able to take food to go? what if we just want 1 pavilion cookie after a meal at collis? If Newlove wants to sell this plan to the students, he should write an editorial in the D or send a mass email to the student body explaining what this new “hybrid” is all about. Dartmouth students already have no option but spend an exorbitant amount of money on DDS food — DDS should at least have the decency to notify students about the details of the proposed changes, take student input, and find a mutually acceptable dining option. This whole top-down decision making is starting to get a bit old.