PSU Buying Back Unused Meals

Starting in the fall 2016 semester, Plymouth State will com- pensate students for unused meal swipes. At the end of the semester, the University will buy back meal swipes from students. The university will pay $9 dollars for every swipe, the average amount each swipe is worth. This move is in response to students complaining that they are unsure as to what meal plan they should buy at the beginning of every semester. “I was always so unsure as to what meal plan to buy,” said Abby Dimick, a junior at Plymouth State, “It seems like every semester I would buy a plan that gave me too many swipes, or I ran out. There was never a time where I had the perfect amount of meals.”

“I would love to be able to get some money back.” said James Digleburie. “It would relieve a lot of stress. Right now I’m calculating how many days there are left in the semester, and seeing how many meal swipes I have. I don’t have enough, but if I had bought a larger plan, I would have had way too many meals left at the end of the semester. Buying that larger plan, and getting some of the money back would have been awesome.” Nervousness about how many meals can be eaten in the dining hall is not limited to one or two students. The PSU’s new plan should extinguish that feeling in a lot of students.

The University believes that this new initiative will encourage students to purchase a larger meal plan than they would have previously. By buying a larger meal plan than originally expected students will be able to eat more meals and not have to ration themselves as much as before. This new program also looks to encourage students living off campus to buy a meal plan, despite the fact that they previously would have opted out of the plan.

Assistant to the Director’s Assistant of Food Operations and Planning Advisor Lauren Buffet said, “The meal quality could increase tremendously. With students buying larger meal plans, we could get to a point where students can sit down and order food, like a four or five start restaurant.”