Starting next semester 250 upperclassmen will take part in the trial run of a new on-campus meal plan.
The plan is called a "block-style" plan because it allows students a certain number of meals per semester that they can use at any time, instead of the current format, which gives students a certain number of meals per week.
Mitchell Green, executive director of the Faculty Student Association, said the alternative is being offered because UB students have demanded more flexibility in their meal plans.
FSA is inviting upperclassmen to try out the new plan instead of the current plans, which allow students anywhere from five to 14 meals per week.
"In the current system students have a certain number of meals available to them a week, and some of those meals don't get used for a variety of reasons," Green said. "This plan will hopefully allow for students to budget themselves."
According to Green, in this trial run students will have 120 meal "blocks" available to use through the course of the semester. Instead of being forced to use them within each week, students have the flexibility to spread the use of those meals over the course of the semester.
"If students can use the meal blocks whenever they want, the likelihood for missed meals will be reduced," Green said.
Green said the meal blocks would be used in the same way the current meal system works at dining halls and as meal equivalencies at Putnam's in the Student Union or at Harriman Hall on South Campus.
The initial trial run is limited to upperclassmen because research says freshmen are not as good at budgeting meals as upperclassmen, according to Green.
"The idea behind the study is to understand student eating patterns and to see how well students budget their meals," he said.
Green said the plan has proved popular at some universities he's worked at, but that does not guarantee success.
"There are some schools that have had the program and are now walking away from it because it just doesn't work for their students," he said.
According to Green, UB already had a modified version of the block meal plan available to commuter students and on-campus apartment residents. The trial plan extends this current plan, which allows for only 50 to 100 meal blocks per year.
Student response to the program appears to be favorable. Fifty students have signed up for the trial run since sign-up began the week of Thanksgiving. Some students said they feel the added flexibility makes it easier to live with a dining plan.
"I wanted to cut back to a Dining Dollar-only plan last year because I couldn't make a lot of the meal times I had on the 14 meal plan," said Tom Kelly, a sophomore music performance major. "With the old plan I felt like I was wasting meals and we figured it out that dinners cost something like $10 a piece. I bet with the new plan you can budget better and not waste so much money."
Green said if the trial run proves successful, a full-scale block system could be available by spring 2006.
Green said spots were still available for a trial run of the meal program, and upperclassmen can replace their current meal plan with the new version. Additional perks for taking part in the study include two free guest meals, free UB card insurance, and an enhanced Web-based management system.
The deadline to sign up for the program is December 17.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
