Concerns Raised About Food Program Changes at UNBC
Prince George, B.C. – Communication and consultation, two critical things some say were lacking in the announced changes to food services which will take effect at UNBC this fall.
A Request For Proposals was issued last year and a company named Chartwells, provider of food services to public and independent schools, colleges and universities in North America, was selected as the winning bidder to provide food service on campus. However, Ancillary Services at UNBC has announced several changes in food delivery, some of which have caused a backlash among students, faculty and staff.
Student Kirk Walker says the new food services plan came out in bits and pieces. “It will be turning the cafeteria into a dining hall, and what that means is kids will have an all-you-can-eat experience where they pay $10, or if they’re already on the meal plan for $2166 per semester, then you have access. But it changes the dynamics of the area from the cafeteria which is open now, which is a very large public space, two floors, all glass. The majority of the students who hang out in there are studying, socializing, eating their lunches from brown bags. And it’s going to be blocking that space off and limiting access to a key piece of real estate in the university.”
Walker says “now Ancillary Services is planning on permitting eating in other areas but we still don’t have details of where this is happening. There’s also Subway and other options coming in. My reason for getting involved in this is because of the lack of student consultation. I had never heard of it and a large majority of faculty, staff and students did not know what was going on. Some people’s voices were heard and some of their concerns were taken into consideration, others were not. So that’s what is comes down to: how well are we making decisions at the university and where are those decisions coming from.”
One other major bone of contention on campus is a phased-in mandatory meal plan. As stated on the UNBC website, “For 2014/15 the residence meal plan is mandatory for all students that are new to UNBC residence and who are classified as First Year under the UNBC Academic Calendar (less than 30 credit hours completed). Second Year students (less than 60 credit hours completed) will be phased into the plan in 2015/16. Meal plans will remain optional for third and fourth year students (over 60 credit hours completed), as well as all graduate students. The 7-Day Meal plan will cost $2166/semester, and will automatically be added to the residence fees for first year residence students.”
Walker says “the mandatory meal plan is part of this new Food Services plan. They can’t support an all-you-can-eat buffet-style cafeteria dining hall without having a set number of students under a guaranteed meal plan. Otherwise the economics doesn’t work on that. So in the first year only the First Year students go in, and then the year after that Second Years and then the new First Years, and from then on its years one and two for all students on residence. Years three and four will not have any mandatory meal plans at all, and that’s a guarantee in writing that they will not have to subscribe. And of course anyone who wants to buy a meal plan, there’s always that option, but for the first and second years down the road it will be mandatory.” He says some students will be able to opt out if they have a valid reason such as allergies or some sort of medical condition.
Walker says “ the majority of students and faculty and staff that I have talked to are very questioning about this plan, not so much in terms of the overall addition of it but the way it was rolled out and, is it right for UNBC?” He says initially the discussion he had with people focused on the mandatory nature of the meal plan. “And then the next thing that came up in our minds was this loss of public space at the cafeteria. And just the whole consultation process. I understand that universities can’t ask every student what their opinion is on everything, but this wasn’t done in a proper manner on an issue this big which kind of affects everybody.”
“So for us right now we know it’s happening, we know that the deals are going to go down, been approved by the board of governors, whatever their role was, and right now we just want to make sure that the public space in the cafeteria maintains some sort of, you know, so you don’t have to pay $10 to get into that area which I think is a loss of freedom and an unfortunate casualty of the plan.”
Walker says early on there were concerns about some local proprietors on campus having to close their shops. However he says “a lot of the language in the RFP regarding local production and keeping things sustainable and local and trying to have local sources, they’re doing a good job in maintaining that. So they’re taking that into consideration, they’re just not taking into consideration everything else. The community store is going to be changing quite a bit as well.”
Walker says the backlash to the changes on campus has prompted some action from Ancillary Services. “They’ve started a Twitter account, produced videos, they’ve started this open house and the open house I don’t think was going to happen until they started feeling the questions of students. So it has had a response of providing more information but I think the biggest lesson here is communication and consultation, I mean that’s flatline.”
As well it is believed that cooking in some residences is to be phased out over a protracted period of time as more dorm space is freed up for students. However details in that regard are not available at this time.
Efforts to obtain a response to the concerns expressed in this article from Ancillary Services at UNBC have not been replied to.
Comments
Not fair for anyone including us – taxpayers. Whats the price tag for all these changes and where is it coming from?
Friends from out of town said that the residences at UNBC were one of the reasons their kid chose to go school here. Apparently they are really nice with great kitchen facilities compared to other universities. So if you have something that works then why mess with it.
I’d be choked too if I HAD to eat every meal in the same cafeteria for a year.
You’d think people at a university are smarter than this.
This would honestly stop me from living on campus if I was a student. I spent less than half that on food per semester when I was in school. Yeah, you aren’t cooking. But to me when you don’t gave money, you don’t eat expensive food.
I wonder why they don’t do what many other universities do and have different levels of meal plan at least. For me this basically would have meant coming up with an extra 2000 bucks a year. Pretty steep when your total operating budget is 10k.
From being a part time student at UNBC this is a terrible idea.. Even as it stands right now the food options there are pretty limited and the cafiteria and lunch halls are dirty. Im actually surprised that northern health hasnt shut it down for this reason alone.
Who thought it was a good idea to not only force students to eat what the school wants, but charge them extra for it and remove any way on campus of doing it for themselves. If I were a potential student, UNBC would no longer be on my list.
For a University that cannot seem to increase its undergraduate enrolments. (No increase in approx. 5 years) Why would you bring in a system that would further alienate potential students.
The idea that they need more space in the student residences for future growth is basically BS, because there has been no growth, nor is there any growth forecasted for the next 5 years.
This is another **weak** attempt by the University to garner some more money to ensure their are sufficient monies available to pay their lucrative wages. It has little or nothing to do with student care, and well being.
Its always about the money, salaries, wages, and benefits. Time to become realistic, downsize if necessary, and provide a quality product to students.
As a parent who has a kid preparing to enter into post secondary, I am not excited about this new meal plan. I have not scraped and saved to put $$ away to put food into the belly. Absolute nonsense. I socked it away for EDUCATION !
Posted by: HappyInMyWorld on February 26 2014 9:55 AM
As a parent who has a kid preparing to enter into post secondary, I am not excited about this new meal plan. I have not scraped and saved to put $$ away to put food into the belly. Absolute nonsense. I socked it away for EDUCATION !
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You don’t plan on letting your kid eat? People do a lot better at school if they’re not hungry. I’d be curious to see the menu. Is it worth the 20 bucks a day?
Sounds to me like the biggest complaint is the loss of space to socialize.
Students should rant and rave about all the food the university sells and cooks being certified organic. Might cause mayhem on the food budget but ideals and such would make the whole world healthier and better. AND they can take the opportunity to live on the much touted “100 mile diet”. Thereby doing their part to cut down on climate changing greenhouse gases from those stinkin’ transport trucks. A free wake up call for those living in their ivory towers of advanced education. After all, why not?
Its no different than the University charging for parking. What a hoot. We build the University, we pay taxes to keep it running ie; wages, salaries, etc; then we pay the tuition fee’s and last but not least we charge them to park in the parking lot.
Universities, Hospitals, Municipalities, had better consider moving into the 21st Century. We have less disposable income, not more, and we don’t need anymore gouging.
What we need is good service for the monies paid out. This has been lacking for quite some time.
Axeman: “You don’t plan on letting your kid eat?”
Really?? I forgot about all those poor starving students?
What is nonsense is to make it mandatory.
It is sadly only a prerequisite for funding Chartwells.
I don’t question a student’s need to eat. But I do question a system that requires people on a limited income to eat expensively. That’s about 135 bucks a week. Before we had kids my husband and I spent less than that on two of us. And we got other things for that money. Toiletries obviously aren’t included in this budget. That’s just a lot of money. Students should at least be able to keep a small fridge in their room with sandwich and breakfast items and choose a reduced dinner only plan. Otherwise it seems that residence will become a place only for those with better finances. Will financial aid increase to compensate for the change?
” Students should at least be able to keep a small fridge in their room with sandwich and breakfast items…”
I think that’s a bad idea. Rooms full of rotting food…lovely.
“But I do question a system that requires people on a limited income to eat expensively. That’s about 135 bucks a week.”
You should already be budgeting for food; is 20 bucks a day really going to break you? How much does a trendy, must have cup of coffee go for these days?
Just for perspective, I have two kids away at university and they’re very smart shoppers. Their food budget is $50 per week (each) and they eat quite well. The problem I have with this program is the “mandatory” part.
And to answer your question axman, yes $20 per day would absolutely blow their budget. That’s $400 a month over what they eat now. That’s a lot of extra hours at $10 per hour for them.
Everyone had a fridge in their room when I was there. Lol. They aren’t children. You expect them to budget but you don’t expect them to be able to throw away moldy bread?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t drink fancy coffee at university. I couldn’t afford it. Yes, 20 bucks a day would have broken me. I spent 50 bucks a week on all food and toiletries. I used cash and when it was gone, it was gone. I lived on small work savings and student loans. Where would that extra money come from? More than doubling food costs is a big deal. That is simply a ridiculous amount of money to spend on food when you have no money to spend.
I can’t be the only student who lived this way, right?
Palopu nailed it. Many people are under the mistaken belief that uni’s are for students.
“I can’t be the only student who lived this way, right?”
Right! That’s how we lived. Fancy, expensive coffee was for other people. We had kraft dinner, grilled cheese, and noodles. Was it ideal? Nope. But it’s what we could afford. Given the expense of the mandatory plan, UNBC would be out as a potential University for us.
Posted by: interceptor on February 26 2014 12:58 PM
Just for perspective, I have two kids away at university and they’re very smart shoppers. Their food budget is $50 per week (each) and they eat quite well. The problem I have with this program is the “mandatory” part.
And to answer your question axman, yes $20 per day would absolutely blow their budget. That’s $400 a month over what they eat now. That’s a lot of extra hours at $10 per hour for them.
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If it wasn’t mandatory they wouldn’t be able to offer it so cheaply. 20 bucks a day for three squares is cheap. If you can afford to live in Residence you can probably afford the food.
People are being a little melodramatic about this (no suprise).
For the cost, it’s actually quite reasonable considering it’s full access for seven days per week. Food isn’t cheap. The only challenge as I see it, is keeping off the infamous ‘freshman 15’.
Right on axman. The first couple years of university are a big adjustment enough without having to worry about where your next meal is coming from.
Well I guess that’s why I didn’t live in residence. I guess some kids just get it all paid for. Frankly I wouldn’t spend 20 bucks a day everyday on food for myself now even though I can afford it. I am admittedly a bit of a cheapskate.
I don’t think I ever wondered where my next meal was coming from though. I always had food. I just prepared it myself and saved a whole bunch of money doing so. I also learned how to budget and shop and cook. And I don’t recall that being particularly stressful. Would have been a lot worse to come up with money out of thin air. Some of us either don’t want to run to mum and dad or can’t. But I guess those sort aren’t welcome to live on campus anymore.
The 100 mile diet is a joke. The main supplier for the food at U.N.B.C. is a U.S.A. company so don’t tell me they buy everything they can from our local people. They buy in quantity from the lowest bidder, and it doesn’t matter where it originates.
Everybody’s different, lhl. If I had a son or daughter in university in residence, I’d want them to concentrate on their studies rather than food aquisition and prep, at least for the first year. But that’s just me.
As usual we have reams of hogwash on this subject.
Its almost as if we did not have students in residence, with a shared kitchen, and facilities for the last 20 years.
How the hell did they survive for the past 20 years???? What is different to-day.
Guys like JohnnyBelt, and Axman seem to be the STAR supporters of any venture that pulls dollars out of peoples pockets. Whether is be downtown parking, hospital or university parking, City taxes etc; etc; etc;
Take a break boys and try to figure out what is actually taking place as opposed to your waxing philosophically about the subject.
Give us some good reasons to change from the past 20 years, other than to generate more revenue for a border line broke University, and an American Food Chain.
Hopefully the students have the balls to close this venture down, however if they are predominantly foreign students, then they will probably bite the bullet.
Any kickbacks?
Welcome Chartwells a whole owned subsidiary of the Compass Group, which is a; “British multinational contract foodservice and support services company headquartered in the Compass House in Chertsey, Surrey.[3] It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world and has operations in over 50 countries.[4] It serves around 4 billion meals a year in locations including offices and factories, schools, universities, hospitals, major sports and cultural venues, mining camps and offshore oil platforms.[5” ~ Wikipedia
Welcome to mega corporation dining a la carte! This is typical… when a multi-national corporation moves in choices go out the window! Don’t fight it people, Compass Group is now in control, and they will do as they please!
Posted by: Palopu on February 26 2014 5:06 PM
Guys like JohnnyBelt, and Axman seem to be the STAR supporters of any venture that pulls dollars out of peoples pockets. Whether is be downtown parking, hospital or university parking, City taxes etc; etc; etc;
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Good Grief. Where did you get that nonsense from. The only thing I despise more then the inordinate amount of taxes I pay are those people whose sense of entitlement has them standing around with their hands out expecting the rest of us to look after them.
“If you can afford to live in Residence you can probably afford the food”
Yet you complain about taxes? I mean, if you can afford a house you can afford taxes right? ;)
No one is standing waiting to be looked after. In fact, this new “looking after” they are doing will cost some kids more than double what looking after themselves does…
axman: “Good Grief. Where did you get that nonsense from.”
Consider the source. He doesn’t deal with any form of change well. It’s ‘grumpy old man syndrome’ at its finest.
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