As my sophomore year comes to an end, I have begun looking back on some things that have caused me the most stress during my college career, attempting to work on these things and finish out the second half of my undergraduate experience with a bang. As such, I have come to a retrospectively, unsurprising conclusion: mandatory meal plans at NSU are quite frankly horrible.
For those of you who have been lucky enough to avoid the meal plans at NSU, there are two different required “options” for students living on NSU’s campus. The first is a $1,595 declining balance plan (DB) for students with no kitchen living in The Commons and Leo Goodwin, which I was able to experience my first year at NSU. The second is a $450 DB plan for students living in Mako, CLC, FFV and Rolling Hills, which I am currently experiencing.
Now, let’s get into all the problems with these two meal plans that have caused me a fair amount of stress during my time at NSU. To start, nothing about the meal plan is optional. If you are a student living on campus, you are required to have one of the two meal plans, depending on which building you are living in on campus. Despite Mako, CLC, FFV and Rolling Hills having full kitchens, students are still required to purchase a meal plan. This makes no sense to me. If I decided that I wanted to cook everything and do all my shopping off-campus, I should be allowed to do so instead of being tied down to a meal plan.
Now, maybe spending this money would not be a problem if we had genuinely good options on campus. Starbucks is not the worst place to spend this plan, but honestly, I try not to drink a venti iced coffee every day in the attempt to give my heart a break. Outtakes is severely overpriced, and oftentimes, it looks like their shelves have been ransacked. I do not even bother wasting my time at Flight Deck whose menu is equal parts scarce and gross. Einstein’s would be great, but they are never open. Is it too much to ask for a bagel on a Saturday?
To top it off, this, honestly, would not be so horrible if they just allowed students to transfer the meal plan from one semester to the next, but for some odd reason, this is only possible from the fall to winter semesters. Is it too much to ask for a refund? I did not spend the money, so why can I not have it back? I have a funny feeling that there are numerous students on NSU’s campus who just lose money every year when their meal plan gets wiped at the end of the winter semester.
I am done dealing with the meal plan that residential students are forced into using. Either give us better food options or let us have our money back. Like an elementary school bully, it is not fair to squeeze students dry for their lunch money, NSU.
