People pleaded for a new meal plan and changes have been made. Is it for the better? We asked students what they think of the new and old meal plans.

I think the new meal plan is a step in the right direction, but still won't give us enough options.

I hate CDS. I don't like the food. I don't like eating it. I think a lot of times they serve crap. The one thing they have going for them is that Stevenson has a lot of options.

Yes I've heard of it. I think it's a really good idea and was all for it, but someone said something which kind of dissuaded me. This meal plan means that you would be paying the same amount for less meals right? And one can't exactly say how far 400 or 800 flex dollars will last you. A lot of the things in the snack bar at the moment are not cheap, so who's to say what will happen when things get more commercialized. In theory though, I'm all for it, because this meal plan at the moment is light years behind most colleges and I don't like it at all.

I don't like the current meal plan because no one eats 21 meals a week. It wastes food when they do go to meals because they feel like they need to at least try and get their money's worth. The new meal plan, although not much better because of the cost discrepancies between the options, is still a level up because it costs $200 less and makes getting food easier for off campus students who aren't part of the "lucky 100", and for people who have really busy schedules and have a problem eating at specific times. Although I have a definite fear that the convenience store is going to be overpriced, it will be nice to be able to buy things other than CDS food (and hopefully we can convince them to put in really useful items like cigarettes and cases of beer).

Current meal plan: It works well enough, except that the food is not exactly my definition of good quality. I do think that it should be less expensive and more flexible, but that's being dealt with. I think there should be more appetizing vegetarian and vegan options, though. The meals are designed to satisfy meat eaters and keep vegetarians from complaining about being ignored, but almost no thought is given to vegans. And more options should be added, they shouldn't go replacing yummy vegetarian food like crispy patties with nasty gross things like soy burgers in the snack bar. It would be fine to add soy burgers, but why get rid of something that actually consistently tastes good?

New meal plan: It's great that there are more options, but what's up with the flux dollar thing, or flex dollar, or whatever it is? It would make a lot more sense to have flexible dining options that have variable prices depending on how many meals you want to get from CDS a week. And the amount of flux dollars given for each level of less meals doesn't come close to equalling the amount we would have to spend for those meals. If you look at how much we're paying per meal right now, there's no way in hell that $400 would cover a meal a day for the entire year.

I personally think that a meal plan that meets the needs of a different group, say halftime co-opers, is really needed and I am glad they are finally considering it.