The lottery went well; number 459 landed me in a single in BARH, my second choice to a single in quad adjacent to a friend of mine’s. My plans for the next year included eating healthier meals more regularly than this year. I had planned to forego the meal plan in favor of grocery stores and BARH kitchens.
The dining halls do provide healthy eating. As college dining halls go, I’d say we’ve got it pretty good. Sodexho does a remarkable job of providing a vegetarian or vegan entree at every meal, in addition to a wide variety of foods. I, however, like food. This fondness of food is only overcome by laziness, which, luckily, is the case quite often. However, when offered the choice between chicken parmesan and a turkey and provolone sandwich at equal and very little effort, I will always, inevitably, choose the chicken parmesan with steak fries, noodles, and maybe some pumpkin pie and ice cream to finish off the meal. Therefore, it would be better for myself, both regarding my health, and kicking my laziness.
In addition, the times at which the dining hall has more than just the salad and deli bars open rarely coincides with breaks in my schedule, if I even have a break before dinner time. Therefore, I often catch one very large meal a day around dinner time. I don’t want to imagine what this does for my metabolism. Making food for myself, instead of having a meal plan, would greatly increase my health here because I could bring with me several small meals to munch on throughout the day in my 10 minutes between classes. These 10 minutes are plenty of time to eat something such as a sandwich or piece of fruit I’ve brought with me, but not enough time to run to a dining hall to get something to eat.
Also, there is the obvious benefit that, eating one meal a day, regardless of how large it is, definitely doesn’t cost as much as I’m paying per day for a meal plan. I can’t say I’ve ever actually eaten enough in one day to merit the cost of the meal plan. Buying food from a grocery store would prove to be much cheaper. Though this does add an extra burden to my already busy schedule, I would much prefer to work into my schedule taking the bus to Price Chopper once every couple weeks than paying more than double on a meal plan.
Unfortunately, all residents of BARH must purchase a meal plan. It’s the price, quite literally, I have to pay in return for a single. While I chose to pay that price the day I signed up for the room, I don’t understand why all BARH residents must purchase a meal plan. I understand that only people who can get into BARH can also get into the dining hall, though I have seen several people who don’t live in BARH in the dining hall on a regular basis who get into the residence hall through friends who live in BARH. This rule was more relevant when there was no wall between BARH and the BARH dining hall. In this case, requiring all residents to have a meal plan makes sense, that way anyone who gets food without swiping their card has already paid for the meal plan. There are several reasons why a person would not want a meal plan, and now, far fewer reasons for requiring BARH residents to have one.
