There are currently many problems with Drexel University’s dining services, and they need to be acknowledged. The first of many problems is associated with Drexel’s dining plan options for freshman students. The freshman students who are residents of the campus must choose one of only three available dining plans (“Dining Plans”). Two of the plans, the Gold Plan and the Blue Plan, are each $1,675 per term, while the Platinum Plan costs $1,750 each term (“Dining Plans”). Each of these plans is extremely expensive, no matter what they provide. In fact, this is approximately $22.08 spent each day on food alone. Choosing from only three plans can be difficult; there is a slim chance that just three plans will fit students’ needs and satisfy them. In addition to them being very pricey, freshmen students living in residence halls on campus are forced to buy one for the three terms of their freshmen year. It is one thing to charge an arm and a leg for a meal plan, but to then require each student to purchase a meal plan is completely unfair, especially for those who cannot afford it.
For each plan, freshman students are allotted a number of meal passes to the Handschumacher Dining Center and a certain number of Dining Dollars for each term. The Gold Plan provides 200 Dining Dollars, the Blue Plan provides 475 Dining Dollars, and the Platinum Plan provides 550 Dining Dollars (“Dining Plans”). Although it may sound like a good deal, these Dining Dollars can only be used at the following locations: Chick-fil-A, Subway, Currito, the Northside Market, Starbucks, Taco Bell Express, ThirtyOne 41, Creese Café, Ross Commons, and the Handschumacher Dining Center itself (“Locations and Menus”). At first, ten locations seem like a large number of places to spend these Dining Dollars. However, students become tired of the same food after eating at these places for weeks at a time. Below is a bar graph indicating freshman students’ satisfaction with the current places where they can spend their Dining Dollars. The data are based on a survey of 87 randomly selected freshman students currently residing on Drexel’s campus.
Also, it is hard to get a substantial meal at Starbucks and ThirtyOne 41, so, there are truly only eight places to get meals. Another problem with the places where students can spend their Dining Dollars is that the prices of food and other items are too high. At the Northside Market, one box of cereal costs close to eight dollars, and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is around six dollars. Not only does the Northside Market overprice its products, it also has very few options. For example, students cannot buy fruits and vegetables, common toiletries such as shampoo and toothpaste, or eggs like they would at a grocery store. Because of this, the value of Dining Dollars drops.
Overall, Dining Dollars are a bad deal financially for students. One Dining Dollar is exactly the same as one United States dollar, so there is no benefit or deal being made in that sense. If Dining Dollars were worth more than regular US dollars, then it would be smart to have Dining Dollars. Also, by having Dining Dollars, students are forced to spend money at the previously mentioned locations. These places know this, so they dramatically increase their prices. They might as well; students are not going to be able to spend them anywhere else or redeem them for cash. Therefore, when buying their Dining Dollars through one of the three dining plans that Drexel offers, students are actually losing money. Essentially, their US dollars are losing value by being converted into almost worthless Dining Dollars. And it isn’t as if the before-mentioned places only accept Dining Dollar; they accept cash, credit cards, and debit cards like any normal store.
An additional flaw with the Dining Dollars is that they do not rollover into the following term. Basically, students will get either 200, 475, or 550 Dining Dollars per term, and whatever is not spent by the end of the term expires. One student had the unfortunate misconception that leftover Dining Dollars would be transferred into next term’s account. However, this is not the case. That student had over 150 Dining Dollars after the first term, all of which were erased. Below is a graph showing the number of Dining Dollars that 87 randomly selected non-commuting Drexel freshman students currently have remaining in the second to last week of the winter term. These Dining Dollars will expire after this term, forcing students to use them unwisely.
One mistake that Drexel University made was naming another type of currency Dragon Dollars. Dragon Dollars are dollars that can be put onto a student’s account, but can only be spent at locations specified by the purchaser. For example, a parent could buy Dragon Dollars for their child that could only be spent at Barnes and Noble. Like Dining Dollars, one Dragon Dollar is equivalent to one US dollar. However, Dragon Dollars can be spent at the same places as Dining Dollars, and more. For instance, Dragon Dollars can be spent at off campus locations like Trader Joes across the Schuylkill River and The Fresh Grocer on Penn’s campus. Unlike Dining Dollars, Dragon Dollars do not expire. The mistake that Drexel made was making Dining Dollars and Dragon Dollars sound so much alike. Students often get Dragon Dollars and Dining Dollars mixed up, and, therefore, believe that it is Dining Dollars that rollover. Also, students sometimes think that they can spend their Dining Dollars at places that advertise the acceptance of Dragon Dollars, which is not the case.
One final problem with the dining services at Drexel is the hours of operation of the stores and restaurants. For students that want to spend their meal swipes at the Handschumacher Dining Center, they only have until 8 pm to eat their dinner, and that is just Monday through Thursday (“Locations and Menus”). On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the Handschumacher Dining Center closes at 7:30 pm (“Locations and Menus”). Ross Commons, Creese Café, and ThirtyOne 41 are not even open on the weekends (“Locations and Menus”). Because of these strict hours, students have had to alter their normal eating hours to suit Drexel’s. It should be the other way around. The students are paying a lot for their meals; Drexel should cater to them and be open at the students’ convenience. Below is a graph showing how the current dining system at Drexel University has altered the eating habits of freshman students. The statistics used to construct the figure are based on a survey of 87 randomly selected freshman students who have a dining plan.
There are many problems with Drexel’s dining plans and services. However, it is not too late to fix them. There are many possible solutions to these problems. Drexel’s staff in charge of the dining services should start by looking at other schools, especially local ones. Other colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area have much better meal plans than Drexel does, and at a lower cost. Drexel can learn a lot by studying the dining services that these neighbor colleges have to offer.
