Merciless meal plans

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On a scale from one to 10, how much do you like having your money stolen from you? You probably don’t like it at all. Do you have a meal plan at BYU? Then your money is being stolen. Here’s how:

During the spring and summer terms you are required to purchase the most expensive meal plan available if you live on campus: $975 per term or $1,950 for both. Missionaries average spending less than that in a year on all of their in-field expenses combined! You don’t have a choice. Residing in the dorms over the course of a year are thousands of responsible students who find joy in taking care of themselves and being thrifty. Why are they not allowed to do so?

Also, even though you are required to spend an outrageous amount of money, those funds will be forfeited at the end of the term if you don’t spend it all. You still pay for the meals you don’t eat. Going to your grandmother’s funeral Friday through Sunday? That’ll cost you $42.75! How ethical does that seem to you?

Are these meal plan policies ridiculous? Yes. Two propositions we should all push for are 1) either allow students to purchase any meal plan they want or don’t require them to buy one at all and 2) since many students won’t exhaust all their meal plan funds, allow those funds to carry over to future terms. Stop thievery. Change these policies.

Michael Hansen
St. George

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