If you're convinced that the quality of food on campus isn't worth the price you pay, you're not alone. The Student Association Assembly resolved at their March 21 meeting to create the Faculty Student Association Revisions Committee, a new body designed to remedy the problems of our on-campus food service. The FSA is the self-proclaimed "not-for-profit" organization that operates most of the dining centers at UB, as well as other services, such as campus cash and the vending machines.
The assembly proposes to require every on-campus dining center funded by the FSA to provide nutritional information and post the ingredients of the food they serve. They also want the FSA to offer more convenient meal plan options, such as providing a lunch plan for students who may sleep through breakfast. Additional suggestions include standardizing prices for particular foods throughout campus and providing something UB has never seen: fresh produce.
Paying for the food we eat here is like paying for expensive high school cafeteria lunches. This is not to say that every FSA-sponsored dining hall has problems - Bert's, for example, is one of the best places to eat on campus. Pistachio's also offers tasty, pseudo home-cooked meals, but for a hefty price. Many other locations, however, leave much to be desired. Some prices simply do not make market sense. The idea of paying over $2 for a burger at Putnam's when you can purchase a full meal at Burger King for roughly the same price is ridiculous. Taco Bell is generally cheaper than its UB knock-off, Taco Bull - not to mention the fact that Taco Bell's food is better. Since FSA is operating on a not-for-profit basis, on-campus meals should be cheaper than off-campus food.
Meal options for students with special dietary needs such as vegans or vegetarians or those attempting to limit their fat and caloric intake are noticeably lacking on campus. Fresh fruit and vegetables, high-fiber or whole grain selection and non-meat sources of protein are few and far between while fast food is abundant. In this way, FSA operates against the best interests of student health; they close the Kosher Deli while opening a fatty chicken-wing stand. While FSA should cater to student tastes, it must also strive to supply students with the means necessary to achieve a balanced diet.
Reforming the meal plans is also a necessary change that would add flexibility to student eating patterns. A proposal to incorporate special lunch plans would compensate for the little-used breakfast service. FSA reaps countless dollars each year on the pre-paid meals missed by students whose schedules don't coincide with the operating hours of campus food service. SUNY Albany offers affordable block plans that allow students to choose when to eat, as opposed to UB's system that apportions a set amount of meals each week. Albany also has special, inexpensive plans for commuters and kosher consumers.
It is troubling that one organization has the power to regulate how unhealthy, unaffordable and unappetizing the food is at UB. Operating almost exclusively without competition, there is no downward pressure on prices and food quality suffers as a result. Students, left without viable alternatives, are forced to eat what FSA supplies and pay the prices FSA dictates.
When the assembly requested FSA Executive Director Mitch Green appear at an open town hall meeting, he refused because, according to FSA Revisions Committee Chair Keith Smith, he wasn't "prepared for questions students would ask." If the head of FSA is incapable of addressing the needs of his own customers, that says something about the responsiveness of the organization that handles millions of dollars each year. The only student input solicited is nominal at best; unnoticeable suggestion boxes and flyers distributed on only one day of the year. The assembly is actually doing FSA a favor by conducting an online poll of the food services on campus.
To make this organization accessible and accountable, FSA must publish its budget online, conduct extensive surveys and diversify its meal plans. They should also stop charging prices for food that are comparable to the costs of eating at the movies or a sports event. Many students have to live here, and the FSA should protect their interests, not its own.
