In October 2011, student concerns sparked the process of amending the meal plan system at California Baptist University.
Associated Students of California Baptist University executive president JJ Steele presented members of CBU administration with a list of student concerns regarding the current meal plan system.
Among these concerns was the time-restraints that were implemented into meal plan regulation this year.
“It was evident that some students were upset with this,” Joe Adcock, assistant dean of students, said. “This policy has always been in the handbook, this year was just the first year we had the technology to enforce it.”
After deliberating on proposed meal plan changes from October until April, CBU administration decided to eliminate the time-restraints beginning with the 2012-2013 school year.
Students will now be able to swipe their cards at any time throughout the day, the only regulation being that they can swipe a maximum of five times per day, if a student swipes in an immediate family member it does not count towards their daily allotment.
“It was time to take a look at what we had been doing and see how we could possibly improve it,” Adcock said.
Another change with the 2012-2013 meal plan system is the elimination of traditional weekly meal plans, and the transition to strictly block meal plans.
“Since introducing the block plans several years ago, they have become more popular each year,” Adcock said.
Administration felt that these plans offer more flexibility to students, and could offer them more options in how they choose to spend their allotted meals.
“When you buy a block meal plan, you buy a certain number of meals per semester. Students are going to need to monitor their meal usage more closely, but will have much more flexibility on when they choose to use it,” Adcock said.
Students will have six semester block options to choose from, Plan A (50 meals), Plan B (75 meals), Plan C (100 meals), Plan D (150 meals), Plan E (200 meals) and Plan F (250 meals). Any unused meals do not roll over to the next semester.
Traditional undergraduate students living in traditional University-owned may purchase only plans D, E or F. All other students may purchase any of the six options.
If a student purchases one of the smaller meal plans and begins to run out of meals, they are able to purchase additional meals mid-semester by transitioning to a larger meal plan. Students may not decrease their meal plan. Meal usage can be tracked on InsideCBU (Life@CBU tab; Campus Life Folder).
“After talking with ASCBU, we decided that the flexibility offered by the block plans would be more advantageous for students,” Adcock said.
For more information regarding meal plans contact the Campus Life office.
