The ad hoc committee on dining services recently released the Summer term dining plan results. Thirteen students, or 1 percent of the 1,160 students enrolled this summer, chose the largest meal plan, where eaters pay $845 for $900 of DBA. The default $700 plan with no option cost was the choice of 459 students, or 40 percent. The $50 option cost did not deter 476 students, 41 percent, from selecting the $525 meal plan. Eighteen percent, or 212 students, opted for the $400 off-campus plan which included a $100 option cost. All of the meal plans are non-refundable.
The figures reflect changes students made to their dining plans at the beginning of the term. All students were automatically billed the default plan of a non-refundable $700 Declining Balance Account but had the opportunity to increase or reduce the amount by June 27.The committee stressed the figures are for the Summer term only and do not represent the expected yearly spending patterns.
Case Dorkey '99, DDS intern and member of the ad hoc committee, said "With numbers like this, it makes it a hard task to have to make projections" about the amount and location of cuts necessary for DDS to break even.
Dorkey added that during the summer, there is a lot of ambiguity about how much revenue will be brought in. He said the higher number of people with the $400 plan reflects the larger percentage of students who live off campus in the summer. In addition, more people eat off campus as well, he said.
"The numbers show that there seems to be a split between $700 and $525 plans. There was a higher number who chose $700 than I expected," Dorkey said. He added that he though not having to hand in the option card at the end of Spring term was a factor in the surprising results he said he had not "heard from too many people that have missed the deadline."
Students could make changes to their dining options during the first 10 days of this term. Director of Dining Services Pete Napolitano said if students wanted to make a change, all they had to do was make the effort to fill out a card.
Napolitano said the change was well advertised. "We had a booth in Thayer, cards at registration and notices in [The Dartmouth] regularly. But we always get people who say they never saw anything."
Following student protest of an $800 mandatory non-refundable DBA and a referendum in which 93 percent favored cuts in dining services rather than increased spending, the ad hoc committee formed last spring to determine the future of DDS.
Rachel Bogardus '98, student co-chair of the committee and student liaison to the Trustee Committee on Finance, said the ad hoc committee's goal is to use the information taken from the spring referendum to evaluate the dining services and to make changes to DDS to meet the students' needs.
"The result of the vote was that basically the students wanted reduced services for a lower price," Bogardus said.
"Reduced services could mean anything from changing the hours of operation to reducing the variety of services provided," she added.
The survey asked questions about which services students valued the most.
Athletic concessions, Cafe North at the Dartmouth Medical School, the East Wheelock Cluster snack bar, Hanover Country Club snack bar, Lone Pine Tavern and Westside Buffet were the least popular dining establishments amongst students, according to the survey.
The survey results show students indicated that they would be willing to spend $500 for a mandatory, non-refundable meal plan per term. But according to DDS, the actual average spending per student per term is in the $630-$660 range, Bogardus said.
"The most likely cause for this difference is that the students who tend to spend more in DDS did not participate in the survey because their interests were not at stake," Bogardus said. "It is likely that other students underestimated the amount they spend to encourage a lower minimum DBA."
"Everyone's spending levels are different," Bogardus stressed. "We are looking to please the majority, but some people are always unhappy."
The meal plan changes reflect DDS's need to budget for expenditures which will meet student need. Bogardus said that under the old meal plans, which included refundable DBA, DDS would receive student revenues, plan their expenditures, yet end up losing money when they had to give refunds.
